I define a dead truth as something you used to believe but no longer do. Some of these truths are banal (e.g. knee high boots suck) and thus slip away seamlessly, vanishing into a graveyard of ideas overturned. But some of them are much more systemic. Some of these beliefs are so tied to one’s sense of self that they have organized elements of their identity around them, turning them into characteristics that define them instead of simply some things they believe. This doesn’t mean that they’re less likely to die, only that when they do, it is harder to move on from them. Getting up from the shiva is more painful, to use a Jewish analogy, than sitting down for it at all.
I love this idea that the things we hold so tight (or that grip us so tightly) are not permanent, that we can be so very certain of them as truth, but even they lose their hold.
I love this idea that the things we hold so tight (or that grip us so tightly) are not permanent, that we can be so very certain of them as truth, but even they lose their hold.