How Do You Know It's Not True?

The two older ones were really beginning to think that Lucy was out of her mind. They stood in the passage talking about it in whispers long after she had gone to bed.

The result was the next morning they decided that they really would go and tell the whole thing to the Professor. 'He'll write to Father if he thinks there is really something wrong with Lu,' said Peter; 'it's getting beyond us.' So they went and knocked at the study door, and the Professor said 'Come in,' and got up and found chairs for them and said he was quite at their disposal. Then he sat listening to them with the tips of his fingers pressed together and never interrupting, till they had finished the whole story. After that he said nothing for quite a long time. Then he cleared his throat and said the last thing either of them expected:

'How do you know,' he asked, 'that your sister's story is not true?'

'Oh, but-' began Susan, and then stopped. Anyone could see from the old man's face that he was perfectly serious. Then Susan pulled herself together and said, 'But Edmund said they had only been pretending.'

'That is a point,' said the Professor, 'which certainly deserves consideration; very careful consideration. For instance - if you will excuse me for asking the question - does your experience lead you to regard your brother or your sister as the more reliable? I mean, which is more truthful?'

'That's just the funny thing about it, sir,' said Peter. 'Up till now, I'd have said Lucy every time.'

'And what do you think, my dear?' said the Professor, turning to Susan.

'Well,' said Susan, 'in general, I'd say the same as Peter, but this couldn't be true - all this about the wood and the Faun.'

'That is more than I know,' said the Professor, 'and a charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed.'

'We were afraid it mightn't even be lying,' said Susan; 'we thought there might be something wrong with Lucy.'

'Madness, you mean?' said the Professor quite coolly. 'Oh, you can make your minds easy about that. One has only to look at her and talk to her to see that she is not mad.'

'But then,' said Susan, and stopped. She had never dreamed that a grown-up would talk like the Professor and didn't know what to think.

'Logic!' said the Professor, half to himself. 'Why don't they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.'

-The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis

This is an excerpt from a book that my roommate bought me for Christmas, it's called A Year With Aslan. It's a sort of daily reflections thing from the Chronicles of Narnia books, which I ADORE.

Aaaaanyways. This has brought about some questions in my own life. In the end, I suppose things are either this way, or that way, or potentially one other way. Not 'black or white', per se, because that would leave room for a third option (grey), but more of a set of options. In the end, the facts are the facts, is what my dad always tells me. So to translate this new found knowledge into my own life:

I move in the near future.
I move in the distant future.
I do not move.

Alright, that's straightforward enough. What has given ME the right to rule out options? Why am I allowing my brain to cancel out certain circumstances, purely based on their obscurity? How do I know it's not true? Let's see if I can find some more.

He is untruthful, and aware of it.
He is untruthful, and unaware of it.
He is truthful.

This is a good exercise. I will have to put this into practice more often, I believe. It's a definitely refreshing way of looking at the world - makes it look less intimidating. It makes the choices we face seem less daunting and frightening. So from here on in, I will try to look at situations in my life objectively. I will work towards handling choices with logic, which, unfortunately, most schools DO NOT teach.

But I should wrap this up. It's been too long of a post anyways, and I need to get to sleep. I will either sleep well, sleep poorly, or not sleep at all. Thanks for reading my crazed rantings again. Much love <3

xme