As an English teacher I teach my students many different literary skills such as theme, plot and point of view. As a human being I like to teach my students life long lessons through literature. It is called bibliotherapy. Right now we are reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's a story about a young genius who is trained as a solider to help save planet Earth from terrestrials. It begins with this six year old Ender who is genetically enhanced to be the best solider for humanity. The story begins violently with him severely beating up a classmate of his. Then develops into a struggle of good and evil within the soul of this young child.
As I was reading about the inner turmoil of this young man in dealing with such violence, he said something that really made me think. "Sometimes lies were more dependable than truth." Hmmmmm… I don't think it means that lies are more truth than truth, but that lies are so prevalent in our life that we can depend on being lied to than on being told the truth.
I don't know why but that thought makes me loose hope for humanity. Why? How can we thrive and grow and evolve if everything is a lie? If our existence is based on lies then what is our true purpose?
It makes me wonder though…. what is the truth? And why are we so afraid of it? Why is it true that lies are more dependable than the truth? Has humanity gone mad? Or what did Ender mean? Did he mean that lies are easier to believe? That we would rather depend on a lie than the truth so that we don't have to face reality?
In the end, I suppose, it all comes down to our own truth, and the courage to live boldly with that truth! I do believe that the greatest people of all taught us this lesson over and over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment