"My" Truth

Everyone has a perspective that is at least slightly different from everyone else's. When people refer to it as "my truth" or "their truth" it really bothers me. It is true that it is in fact my perspective, truly, but that does not mean it has any bearing on the truth at all. There is one Truth, and one series of events that is in fact reality. Unfortunately as finite humans we do not have very large perspectives so we rarely understand what is going on in a complete way.

This lack of completeness exists for things we are present for as well as the other 99.9999% of the world. The part of this that I am particularly interested in is how to engage with people who have different perspectives than I do. When they are on the other side of the room that isn't too hard, but when they are from a different race/religion/community that makes it a lot harder.

Is it possible to learn enough about a radically different perspective to be able to understand in a real way people who have it? I can be sympathetic of others and their struggles, but I am not sure how far I can extend my empathy.

I have strong opinions about a lot of things in government and politics. Things that impact everyone in our country. I recognize though that my perspective is limited and it is distinctly possible that I have opinions that are not only impractical, but dismissive and offensive to some people's experiences. Where, were I in their position I would actively fight against those ideas, and justifiably.

Like I said, there is one truth. But to fix many of the problems we face as a nation we need solutions that take into account the perspectives of many different people.