“Not all that is spoken is right, and not all that is written is true.”

A very stark statement isn’t it. It carries a hint of irony that many people are not aware of. And we go about our everyday business, not challenging the daily prints in our lives or statements made by people perceived to be in positions of authority.

Sad, but a fact of life.

We take most printed words to be the holy truth. We assume instructions or stories told to us by people in position of power or seniority to be right.

Word by word, they present the world through the author’s lens. If it’s written, it must be true! It is out there in black and white, with no shades of grey.

Vowel by vowel, speech is translated into the truth of life. If it is spoken with confidence, it must mean something! After all it is uttered by the very people we respect for some reason.

Perhaps such beliefs and reasoning makes life easier to handle. It saves us the trouble of thinking and pondering. The truth is floating out there. Why waste all that energy and effort to challenge them?

Maybe.

Maybe lies and sugar-coated truths are undemanding. They allow us to live in the world we want to stay in and not complicate our lives with too much thinking. Thinking and pondering is hard, it is not exactly the most popular activity around.

Everything we do in life, we do them for a reason. Every word printed, every word spoken is for a reason too. There is a hidden motivation for them. Is it definitely true and right?

Perhaps.

Who knows?

But the mere fact of a big question mark to that question should not deter us from questioning the printed and spoken words. The evolution of life brought us the gift of thoughts and opinion. Why allow other people to tell you what the world is like? Form your own opinion!

Right or wrong, truth or lie?

At least the merit lies in it being your own thoughts, and not others. It beats just taking them at face value and living with it.