What I Know for Sure (today)

A friend celebrated her birthday by posting a “known truth” for every year she’d been alive. Fifty seven.

It’s not my birthday, but I was struck by her post. One- that she admitted her age. If you’ve known me long enough, you know that I am sticking to 39 and would rather not discuss it further. I say this and people sort of laugh. I do not laugh. Two- I don’t think I could come up with 39 truths. Assuming we’re defining truths as things you know without a doubt, 100% through and through.

I will say my friend had several truths related to food safety. I think she must have had a bad case of food poisoning a time or two.

Isn’t that the way of life? What we know for sure- our truths, our certainties- are colored and formed by our life experiences. And as the saying goes, change is the only constant. So what I know for sure seems to change. With life events, with emotions, with sleep, without it. As I meet new people, travel new places, read more- I learn more. I have my core stuff but it ebbs and stretches and shrinks as I live and move through the world.

Then there’s Oprah. At the back of her magazine, she writes a column “What I Know for Sure”. It’s nice. But sometimes, I wonder. Really? You know that for sure every single day?

For example, I believe “there is always hope”. But if I believe that- if I know that for sure then why do I feel hopeless sometimes?

So I think this phrase needs to always have a modifier: What I know for sure (today). What I know for sure, with an asterik*. And then in small print at the bottom, subject to change without notice.

So, as I write this*, here’s what I know for sure:

*I wrote this a while ago so some of it could have all ready changed.

1. There is a God. You may not call him God. And you may not call him Him. Semantics. There’s a God and he’s good. And wants good for you. And if you don’t believe that, then you’re doing it wrong.

2. Sometimes I do it wrong.

3. When you hear water running and your toddler is not in the same room as you, it is not going to be pretty.

4. If you plant it, the gophers will come.

5. Political affiliation and religion are meaningless. And any politician making you think otherwise is only doing so to get your vote. We do not live in a theocracy. And I don’t want to.

6. Gay people getting married are not going to threaten the sanctity of marriage. Churches will not be forced to perform marriages any more than they are forced to now. Read up on the John Edwards trial. THAT guy’s the kind of stuff threatening marriages.

7. I did not buy those donuts for Little Sir. Though I will share with him.

8. I will never go to a book store, craft store or plant nursery “just to look.”

9. Love is not conditional. But respect, honesty, trust and friendship are.

10. Miracles do happen.