“Keeping what you have is hard like searching for what you've lost.” ― Auliq Ice
I was student teaching at Our Mother of Holy Family Catholic School in Pittsburgh. I am Jewish but wanted an educational experience that would remove me from my safety zone and permit me to discover worlds of which I was always a visitor but never a true member of the family. The Mother Superior of the school welcomed my interest in this venture and commended me for the willingness to expand my educational horizons. She said discovering truth is difficult, the attempt dangerous, and the reward not always the kind of treasure you expect, but like Jesus, an attempt must be made, for without trying, all else pales in comparison. (The Mother Superior had a bit of a sense of humor, also adding that my very long hair, and beard, my being a young lean Jewish lad, seemed like Central Casting sent me. She did inform me, that the coloration of my skin, was just the right shade of almost Mediterranean to make me seem more like an ordinary Jesus, and not the kind that originated from Sweden or Norway!)
My experience at Holy Family provided interaction with the Sisters, some who had great disdain for me, some who cautiously accepted me, and few who wholeheartedly permitted me to indulge in a bit of liberal interpretation of how to teach. My Lead Teacher was a young Nun, and our first meeting was an interesting discovery of commonality and difference. Sister Alphonso, (her chosen name) expressed with little hesitation, that Catholic doctrine is precise and inflexible, it is based on a truth, that is required to believe in, and becomes its own core of truth. One can disagree, but there is no debate. However, she added, you seem to be full of imagination, and insight, seeking a cacophony of choices that the innocence of youth promotes. How these two directions will interact, she mused, we will have to discover together. There is your truth, there is the truth of the church, and I understand the most telling will be the truth of our third and fourth-grade students, who still are figuring out THAT DEFINITION.
I had assumed truth is black or white no shade of gray no shadows or hazy lines covering what is directly in front of your eyes. My students were innocent enough to beg for the truth, I was cocky enough to think I knew it, BUT all around me were barriers reminding me that sometimes the questions, asked are not the always answered with truthful intention, but intended to become a truth told, and to be believed! In 2020, truth has morphed into a weapon, not a shield of armor, not a safe environment to thrive, but a weapon of war and I fear, that those who defy the nature of truth, have become Dr. Frankenstein’s creating monsters from very unnatural and unhuman intentions!
“To find truthful answers we must replace the search for answers with the search for truth.” A.A. Alebraheem
