Translating a World on the Edge

Because we are created as human beings with free will who live a world of infinite possibilities, people often disagree when addressing important moral and ethical issues. For some questions, there just doesn’t seem to be a right or wrong answer. And in some situations, there seems to be several right answers.

Life isn’t black and white. It’s a million gray areas, don’t you find?–Ridley Scott

So what about the grey areas in our lives?

Well, I’m  a writer, so the grey areas are a favorite theme of mine, but those themes are always set against an absolute truth. Years ago, when I was an Art major at Spring Hill College, I considered the shadowing color Grey–not only as it appears in Art, but in life. Now, as a writer, I see it this way: In my characters–and  in life itself– there are always two extreme actions: Absolute Good, which comes from God, and Absolute Evil, which comes from a choice to turn away from God. To ignore this is to ignore Truth.

Think of two ends of a horizontal line. At one end is the bright white of absolute Good. At the other end is the darkness of absolute Evil. The farther we travel from either end, it becomes more difficult to see, or find our way back to the other. In between those ends are lighter and darker hues of the color of GREY. You might call these areas of relativism, the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute. We can surely see that in today’s society!

The fact is most human beings travel daily along a line like this. They travel toward one end or the other, to the light of truth, or to the frequent darkness of a stubborn relativism. But in between the two ends is a lot of area in which to turn in an opposite direction—–either a fall, or an epiphany. This is true, multiple times, in every life, and core for a writer of Catholic Fiction—the possibility of spiritual epiphany with a turn to TRUTH is always present in the work, though it may not always be accomplished by a character. The difference between creating a story and real life is that the fiction writer is pretty much in control. But in our regular everyday lives, possibilities and the choices those possibilities present can be wrong ones.

Life has consequences for being wrong. Giving someone the wrong amount of a medication can kill them; making the wrong job choices, or investment decisions can impoverish a family; the wrong directions will take you where you do not intend to go; and immoral choices like lying, or being unfaithful in marriage, or killing a pre-born child, can result in the destruction of an entire family. This is why an informed conscience is necessary. And this is why we have to look for absolute truths, not relative truths, to guide us.

TRUTH MATTERS – especially when it concerns a whole country on the receiving end of slanderous lies meant to destroy. And those kinds of lies, when we accept them, WILL destroy us–personally and as a people. We see despicableness in some of today’s political leaders, and in the constant refrain of their lies spouted on what ought to be news platforms, but are now only concealers for those who call themselves ‘leaders,’ but who wear false masks while they ignore, and even attempt to tear down the foundation of a great America that has worked for two hundred and fifty years.

But nowhere is Truth more important than in the area of faith and religion, our very personal relationship with God who made us and created our world. It is God who is ultimately in charge, not those who push their own power on the less powerful. Here on Earth, we can’t afford to just accept or just ignore the lies of the greedy.

We need to be engaged. We do not need to be stuck in the middle of that grey line; we need to be headed for the bright light of Absolute Goodness, which is God. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. –Luke 8:17

Life goes by quickly and we will be called to account. We must form our conscience and the consciences of our children to perceive absolute truths that will guide us throughout our lives until the day of our death. Because Eternity is an awfully long time to be wrong.