shades of grey

In the black and white world I grew up in, there was absolute truth, and everything else was a lie. The older I get, the more and more grey I find while the black and white all but disappear.
Truth is one of these grey areas. You may think truth and lies can't be grey, they're black and white more than anything, but not always...

Truth really is relative. The mind is so complex: hopes, fears, denial, and imagination are often interjected into memories, intermingling with reality to create something that's part truth, part fiction. It's always been amazing to me that two peoples' recollection of the exact same event can be very different. I used to think one of the two must be omitting or embellishing or flat out lying on purpose until I came to see the inconsistencies in my own memories.

Photos, home movies, reminiscing with friends and family, and re-reading my journals showed me the inconsistencies. When I record something immediately after the fact and come back to it months or even years later, I often find myself thinking, 'That's not the way I remember it.'
But my point is that truth can be subjective. And while there will always be some absolute truths (i.e. a dog is a mammal, Earth is the third planet from the sun), many things remain true for one person or one group of people that are not true for others. My truth may not be yours or yours mine, but that does not make it any less real or valid for either of us.