Truth is truth as we all were taught in school…but the reality is another matter. As I walked the streets of my hometown of Eldorado this morning I reflected on who I was 50 years ago when I lived there and how my life experiences have changed me. We wonder a bit why others can not understand life as we conceive it. They wonder the same about us.

Two people can see the same automobile accident and report it completely differently. As we walk under the same sky one of us sees a cloudless day while the other says it is too hot.

As a child in Eldorado when the Theatre Department McLeod Performers from Southern Illinois University would visit Hillcrest School I could not visualize what a wonderful place University would be. A few years later I became a member of the staff at SIUC and realized a big dream that I had harbored. The University students revealed to me how big the world was and the wonder and mystery of it. I dreamed of traveling to distant lands and reading the pages of Earth’s Book.

Eldorado gave a profound sense of place. A sense of place is important as you explore the secrets of life. No matter if you are in Edinburgh or Eldorado…all of us are hungry for understanding and purpose and the answer to…Why…

Each of our lives gives us different experiences. Those experiences form our view of community and in fact the world. We embrace what we have learned does not hurt us and we stand apart from that which seems separate from our perceived reality. Indeed the only way to understand your fellow woman and man is to get to know them. Breaking bread with another race or religion or ethnicity…and listening to understand rather than listening to reply…is the beginning of wisdom.

Our life is a bit like the three blind men who were asked to describe an elephant. One said he is like a snake…as he felt his trunk. Another said he is like a fence…as he felt the creature’s massive rib cage and the third said he is like a tree…as he felt the elephant’s leg. So…the only way that we will ever understand our sense of place on Earth is to seek and explore and reflect…