As I am writing this, it is exactly 6 p.m. on the dot. It was a lovely, sunny, seventy-five degree day in the Pacific Northwest with clear blue skies stretching all above the city of Seattle.
Today I woke up decided on a whim to make today a day of adventure.
I grabbed some company and together we explored the nooks and crannies of Capitol Hill, Downtown, Seattle Center, Queen Anne and Olympic Sculpture Park. If you’re out of state and don’t know what I’m talking about, essentially we just walked around a bunch of cool urban places. And when I say we walked, we walked. According to my Fitbit we strolled just over eleven miles.
It was at our final destination of the day, the Olympic Sculpture Park, where I first spotted this inflatable, speech bubble shaped tent.
Just like how my curiosity drove me to try to drive a car as a kindergartener, I waltzed my way over to the table directly next to the big “TRUTH” bubble and asked if they could tell me some more information.
In response, they told me that the inflatable think bubble was called “The Truth Booth”. In the booth you have a maximum of two minutes to describe “The Truth” in front of a video camera.
And that’s it. That’s all they said. Even when I questioned them what kind of truth they were looking for, or for a certain context of a truth, they just replied: “Simply share The Truth.”
While I was waiting to enter the booth, I asked if they were part of a larger organization, but incredibly, their little four person group created this project, plus inflatable tent, and have been traveling for the last three months all over the United States. Washington, and specifically Olympic Sculpture Park where I stumbled upon them, was their twentieth state. Tomorrow they are heading to Montana to hit their twenty-first and after their fifty state tour, they are heading to Europe, the Middle East and South Africa. Ultimately they are going to combine every single recorded entry into a documentary video artwork.
Amazed at their ingenuity, sacrifice for and commitment to their project, I stepped into the booth not knowing what I was going to say. I mean, do you blame me? There are so many things that you could talk about to fill that short of a time span. Not to mention, I’m an incredibly bubbly person who could chat for hours let alone two minutes!
So overcome with a sense of awe, I entered the booth. Sat down on the stool. Held the microphone, hit the record button and just said …The Truth.
More specifically, I said MY Truth. Or rather, one of My Truths. As a human being, I like to think that I am an infinitely faceted entity that pulls ‘information,’ so to speak, from every single interaction and experience from every minute of my life. This project allows the freedom for anyone to speak about several truths if they so wish while in the booth, which highlights the idea that no one is obliged or constrained to have only one.
It occurred to me later on that part of the brilliance of this project is that it allows for the recognition that every single person may have a truth uniquely different to one another – and that these differences, or these Truths, or these perspectives, are recognized and cherished because of their distinctiveness. This booth allows any single member of the public to enter and speak their mind without any parameters or censorship. The time each person spends speaking is so highly valued. In fact, it’s placed on a platform, a documentary, for everyone else in the world to view. How powerful is that?
And not only is it an audio recording where you hear different people speak, but the video camera set up ensures that you have a visual of every single individual that enters the booth. How mind blowing is it that in addition to hearing so many different perspectives, ideas, jokes, life stories or opinions, you have a face to match. You can see the actual person that is tethered to that perspective. You can see the crinkle of a smile forming when they’re about to laugh or the downcast eyes they make when speaking about something difficult. You can see and feel the emotional reaction each person has while speaking.
What I love so much about this project is that it’s so raw. There’s no preparation or expectation. You truly (pun intended) have an opportunity to participate, be it in the booth spreading your own personal angle on life, or as a viewer, perceiving and sharing the experiences of total strangers from around the globe. But as a viewer, I imagine after watching their couple minutes of “Truth” speaking I will have a hard time calling them complete strangers. After all, a stranger is traditionally someone you know nothing about, but I’d hypothesize that after hearing their Truth Booth recording, we, the viewers, will have learned something.
Maybe the Real Truth is that you, an individual, and we, as a human race, will always be searching for the truths. Does the famous saying "It’s about the journey, rather than the destination" ring a bell? Perhaps that has never been more accurate than here.
Maybe The Truth about life is found in the act of searching for the truth(s). The truths found in the quest for reality or certainty or genuineness or whatever it may be for that individual.
Maybe it is just that - that there is not, in fact, just one singular truth but instead a never-ending amount of different truths unique to everyone – and that this uniqueness is in fact what unites us all. And who’s to say that truths can’t change? If every experience of a person’s life has some sort of impact on their persona, then their sense of The Truth(s) can be subject to change at any time, right?
I don’t think the world is about just one thing – I think it’s about different things to different people at different times of their lives. After reflecting, I think that one of My Truths about life is that the most important aspect of living stems from the conversations, relationships and sharing of perspectives between individuals. We have the ability to connect with others and always learn something about ourselves, them, a subject matter or virtually anything else imaginable. By constantly learning, we as individuals can continually morph, grow and keep trekking forward on the quest for our Truths.
If you want to see what I, and everyone else, said in the Truth Booth, visit Insearchofthetruth.net or find insearchofthetruth on Instagram and Facebook to follow along on their journey and await their final documentary video.
Happy searching!
