OK, y’all, your break is over. Back to the heavy stuff.

The title of this post is simple, yet profound. Been talked about since Christ came from New Jersey. Speaking of Christ, let’s start with his good friend and non-savior, Pontius Pilate, who said:

“Quid Est Veritas?” What is truth?

This was said in reply to Jesus who’d just informed Pilate that “Everyone on the side of truth Listens to Me”.

Hmm..then they crucified him…having people on your side for telling the truth can be risky, eh?

Fast forward through history – and again ask the question, What is Truth?

In some training I had when I worked for Proctor & Gamble, a fellow named Will Schutz coined a phrase “levels of truth”, in the context of a training package he called “The Human Element”. This implies that there is no firm and fast and indisputable ‘truth’. There are ‘levels of truth’. But what does that mean?

It means that the face we portray to others, versus the voice that speaks to our inner self are often saying different things.

So what is this all about? Lance Armstrong and Oprah Winfrey.

Lance will be going on Oprah’s show (not sure which one – since she retired from daytime tv and started her own network, it’s lost in the noise). But this will be a ratings peak for her – why? Two levels of truth:

Will he confess all and ask for forgiveness? Or,

Will he put on the ‘outside face’ and do a yabbit? You know, yeah, I did use PEDs (performing enhancing drugs), but … fill in the blank..

Second level of truth:

will Oprah be a mother figure, giving absolution and saying “go back to sports, assume your role as a hero, but sin no more? Or,

You are a liar, a cheat, a thief of the truth, you deserve everything you got and I dismiss you from my sight?

Or something in between…that’s what we all want to see…sort of like the Jews surrounding Pilate as he had to make a live/die decision for Jesus.

The Atlantic magazine has a great piece in this week’s on-line magazine – here’s a link, and this one you should DEFINITELY read – it’s well written.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/who-cares-if-lance-armstrong-confesses/267102/3/

These three sports writers consider all dimensions of this ‘truth’ thing relative to Lance, and come to these three conclusions

First from Patrick, who thinks Lance will likely do the ‘yabbit’. Further, he thinks it ‘might work’, satisfying the public who want Lance to go back to being the “Cancer Jesus”. Wow – now that sure fits with my thesis, yes? But then Patrick says if his wishes were fulfilled, Lance should come out swinging and blame the establishment’s morbid fascination with this little, insignificant thing called taking performance enhancing drugs…yeah .. then

Jake Simpson thinks Emily is right when she says “That’s so yesterday”…in fact he calls it a “Chalk outline of a story”. Hmm. Don’t buy that either…Finally

Hampton Stevens artfully says what I believe: “…greatness can always have a dark side, and we all have flaws. Yet somehow dozens of hall-of-fame caliber athletes in every sport manage to win without being terrible human beings. More importantly, they manage to win within the rules.”

Then he goes on to hope that Oprah “…jams that air tank firmly into the shark’s mouth and shoots true.”

What say you to this? Lookin’ for an answer, here!