FACT FINDING SEARCH FOR BETTER TRUTH

Fact finding carries a promise to clear things up.

If you find enough facts to change your mind on anything, good job.

Who doesn’t enjoy a new attitude shining light on old things?

I do, except for the fact part, which is the biggest question.

Do we need more facts, better truths, to lead a complete life?

Way over here in the older section of reading and writing, I’ve got this:

If a truth is strong, more facts make it stronger; if a truth is hanging on by a threads, more facts might break it.

 

I have a good relationship with facts and truths.

That’s what I work with every day on boomerpdx instead of shit-posting click bait.

When I was young and impressionable I heard versions of facts and truths that were hopeful, aspirational.

I was a kid in the sixties, a young man in the seventies.

After that I’ve been a grown up adult, a husband and father, a married man with kids, now a Granddad with grandkids.

I’ve been lucky to make it this far with what I’ve got.

 

Median Duration Of First Marriages That End In Divorce:

Males: 7.8 years
Females: 7.9 years

Median Duration Of Second Marriages:

Males: 7.3 years
Females: 6.8 years

 

If statistics make facts, this is the kicker:

 

17. Over a 40 year period, 67 percent of first marriages terminate.

 

This year I chalk up thirty-nine years of marriage to the same woman.

We’re not mailing it in, or looking for a way out.

I did some fact finding on this to amend the report to: I’m not mailing it in, or looking for a way out.

Husbands should never speak for their wives.

Remember the ceremony when the bride and groom were asked the same question:

“Do you take this woman to be your wife,” and you said, “I do?”

Remember when she was asked, “Do you take this man to be your husband,” and you didn’t say, “She does?”

You didn’t, did you?

 

Fact Finding On Solid Ground

One highlight from the 1960’s that resonated with losers everywhere was the concept of ‘free love.’

The lingering image of the Summer of Love has been one of bare-breasted flower children making love in patchouli-scented crash pads, sharing their food, their money and their partners.

There was a price for all that free love. From 1964 through 1968, the rates of syphilis and gonorrhea in California rose 165 percent, according to published reports.

Many of the “love the one you’re with” enthusiasts of the 1960s were about to discover that the free-love train was not going to be a smooth ride.

Though the Summer of Love collapsed on itself by Labor Day of 1967, leaving many damaged people in its wake, its lingering contribution has been the freedom to choose one’s own sexual path through life, with all the possible pitfalls and joys that freedom suggests.

Baby boomers are chucking down Viagra and sticking on hormone patches so they can still enjoy sex, Coleman says.

 

I was twelve years old in 1967.  Free love had no meaning.

I wasn’t destined to dream of naked hippies, of growing my hair long, and finding my own special Rose Bud.

But by the time I was eighteen I had grown some long hair and decided to take a long hitchhiking trip.

To Iowa, not San Francisco.

It was a fact finding trip to see what one possible future looked like.

That’s where I decided that you learned more about things by immersing in them.

So I immersed.

 

Better Truth?

When you hear someone slinging it, and calling it THE TRUTH with undisputed authority, take a better look at their sources.

If you’re looking for a new swimsuit but not sure how it will look on you, find a swimsuit model who looks like you.

The hole in your belt is starting to look a little stretched and you need to drop some weight, look for a role model.

I worked in a history museum for a couple of decades, which added more to my U.S. History degree than any class ever could.

We ‘did history’ from the inside.

How is history done?

It’s done with primary sources, monographs, and compilations with the addition of artifacts that represent a historical era.

More importantly, it’s done with money to keep the museum door open and the staff on task.

During my time on the job the boss was an extraordinary fundraiser, a gifted orator, with a deep well of resources.

He took the museum from regional importance to national acclaim.

When he retired the museum board searched for his equal, which they found after a few swings and misses.

Museums are trusted institutions of truth and meaning.

If you find yourself on a fact finding mission, be sure to include a museum.

That’s my standard to agree or disagree with.

Better facts make a better truth; better sources make a better story.

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a blogger tick, this is my talk.