Truth is a Mosaic

“Just because you’re right, doesn’t mean I’m wrong” ~ The Outfield

No one has the whole story, not even the people in the story. Truth isn’t a cohesive chronicle of events. It’s scattered pages, frayed at the edges, worn by perspective, memory, belief, and bias. A tattered mosaic.

“The building collapsed.”
“There are 8 billion people on Earth.”
“The suspect left his home at 9 PM.”
“My spouse loves me.”

All facts. All truths. And yet, they are not alike.

One, an observable truth — witnessed, recorded, agreed upon. The kind of truth most of us pretend is the only metric that matters. 

Ask Google, ChatGPT, or a statistician how many people are on Earth, and you’ll get a number. A number based on approximations. It is a truth that changes with births, deaths, and revised data models. An accepted truth that disregards the observational one.

“The facts of the case.” The kind of truth that puts so many to death. The kind that isn’t about what happened, only concerning itself with what’s admissible. Verdicts reached. Defendant judged. A legally binding truth, so long as all involved followed the rules of the court.

And then there’s love. The great truth. True because we say it. True because we show it. True because we believe it. True because it is formed by faith that transcends all facts.

The next time you find yourself in one of those deep, personal arguments — the ones where both sides are truly certain — pause. Ask: What is true? What’s being overlooked? Misread? Forgotten?

Truth isn’t just about perception — it’s about position. We don’t see things as they are. We see them from where we stand.