The Observer, September 29, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 5
One Foot Out the Door: Truth found in the details
Back from a year abroad in London, I am a month into my final undergraduate year at Case. I recently had an awful realization that there are a lot of "truths" I have been missing out on here: a lot of people I did not talk to and a lot of buildings I never bothered to go into. I hope to dedicate the next few articles to expose some experiences that I (and others) have missed out on. The hope being you can remedy it a bit sooner than I am. I start with one from abroad…
BBC Radio 4 recently did a bit on "Relativism"--the story of modern anthropology, some would say. Part of their talk dealt with Nietzsche, and how he was quite misunderstood. Nietzsche in fact loved truth, he just had this terrible fear that people were liable to tell versions of it that reflected favorably to their current situation (e.g. those in power maintaining it). From my time in London, hearing UK people talk about the US as well as my reciprocation, I took his point quite seriously-we do have tendencies to skew, create, abuse truths.
On the background of this idea, I did some reading about the fall of the USSR, and read accounts from those in charge, and those on the losing end. The latter of which have only come out in the last decade or so. Drastically different stories, highlighting (now, not surprisingly) how truths can be abused in how they are told.
Near my final months abroad, I spent time at a sick bay where I met an Iraqi born, Oxford Educated, British Medical Journal published physician who after a distinguished career dedicated himself to clinics for the homeless in London. When I arrived at the clinic for dinner, a man greeted me, took my coat, got me a drink, and started to get the dinner table ready. He wiped the table, put sugar and cream in my coffee, then sat down to talk. Thinking this was someone who just helps out with small things to kill time until the others arrived, the man actually turned out to be the director of the whole place—the accredited doctor himself. I had to work very hard to not act surprised that a man with such credentials just took my coat, and poured my drink, etc., but I think he noticed.
When I spoke with him about doing work in a sick bay for the homeless, he said it was, "All about details. It's not enough to get rough ideas. You need the details from people because that shows a genuine interest in them-that you respect their existence."
He takes this notion to heart-he lives in the clinic with his patients, just a flight of stairs up from where the long term patients live. He often takes time to live amongst them, watch a movie, and hear their side-chat, etc. The details-he loved them, because he felt this is where the "truths" were about these people. It was also amongst these people who do not have access to many medical resources, that he found "truth" about the essence of practicing medicine.
I have realized that we often only get small "truths" about people's lives. The "rough ideas" we often settle for instead of the "details." And also, in a bigger picture, we only get our information from a small segment of people; at university one might go eight months and speak only to like minded, similar degree pursuing students! And later in life, amongst similar professionals and neighbors-what a narrow way to hear the world! Hence why I enjoyed the time abroad, and am anxious to engage a campus that I am convinced is full of diverse stories willing to unfold themselves to a genuine ear.
