Truth and Love

I actually write a lot about truth and love, but this post is going to take a bit of a different turn. Because I've been thinking...even I don't know what's true any more. 

Now, it was just six months ago or so that I played a game of "beat AI" and did, in fact, beat AI - correctly determining which in a series of images were AI-generated and which were real. I scored 100% and totally knocked the guy's socks off. 

What I'm thinking about more lately isn't fact vs. fiction. It's more....story vs. narrative. 

For example, we currently have a space shuttle in orbit with four humans on board. It has been in the works for a long time and they have been up there 9-ish days or so already. They have successfully orbited the moon and sent back photos of "earth rise" and all the cool things that we want them to be doing in space. 

Then, suddenly, over the last day or so, I've been seeing all kinds of stories pop up about former astronauts "sounding the alarm" over potential heat shield failures. About NASA memos, secret NASA memos, expressing concern about the same. About science-y folks claiming we should never have put humans on this shuttle with its "known" heat shield issues. About how the re-entry, which is coming up later tonight, is almost indefensibly dangerous. 

And it just strikes me as strange that this is the story now. I mean, to me, that's the kind of story you blast everywhere before you supposedly put four lives in mortal danger from a problem science is supposed to be smart enough to solve. 

So it raises the question in my mind: are there really problems with the heat shield? Or are there problems with NASA and space flight and public buy-in that they need to create a narrative that entices more persons to "tune in" to watch the landing, to talk about it, to celebrate it? 

Actually, that's a question I've been asking myself a lot lately - is this the story that's unfolding before me...or is it just a narrative that's being told? 

Honestly, in today's world that is all about marketing, it's really hard to tell sometimes. Especially with the limited perspective we are often given. And it's enough to turn any one of us - maybe every one of us - into a cynic. 

That's why I think love is so important right now. 

In love - real, Christ-like love - I'm not crafting a narrative. I'm telling a story. His story. A story about how beautiful, wonderful, treasured, cherished, noticed, honored, and known you are. That's it. It's the one pure thing that we have left in the world because no matter how much we tarnish it or twist it, real love cannot be tarnished or twisted. When you've really been loved, you know it. 

And so if the only thing I do today is love someone, really love them the way that Christ would love them, then I've done something that all the narratives in the world could not possibly spin. I've told the Story. 

And that's good news.