Truth in a Confused World

“ If we are to aspire to truly be ‘conscious,’ if we hope to shine a light in dark times, then we must begin with the recognition that the truth is often not what we want it to be.”

I remember the day that Kevin Rudd apologised to the Stolen Generations. It was a sunny afternoon and everyone at work had gathered around the radio. I recall looking out through the plate glass windows to the cloudless sky with tears in my eyes. It was as if the very air had changed, as if some unseen pollution had suddenly dissipated that had been so much part of the fabric of living in Australia that I had not truly noticed it until that moment. Something thick and oppressive had lifted. The sunlight seemed brighter; the sky sparkled. I felt I could breathe again.

Thinking back on that moment, I realise what that thickness