Graduates: Go forth and conquer – but seek truth and live by it

As this year’s graduates should be very aware, we live in a confusing world.
We’re seeing inflation shoving prices up – steeply – on all sides. Gas, food, housing. All the essentials, if we can even get them.
We’re surrounded by conflict and angst.
What could become a major war threatens to boil over in eastern Europe.
America is divided on just about every possible issue – abortion, government spending, firearms, immigration, election integrity, social issues, etc., etc.
You erstwhile seniors have already heard plenty of platitudes. No doubt you’ve been told, in so many words, to go forth and conquer, to find success, to live in a way that is respectful of others and conducive to a healthy society. All sound advice, and after what you’ve witnessed in recent years, it might not be too hard to convince you that such a path is the one to follow.
Here’s one more piece of advice: Seek truth and live by it.
We live in a world inundated with subjectivity and group-think, fanned by social media and the internet.
We can find someone to substantiate just about anything we want to think about ourselves or anything else, so we often aren’t real eager to hear an opposing viewpoint, especially one that is uncomfortable.
The ability to put aside our biases and emotions and just weigh facts is not easy.
Some of you will be going to college, where you will be exposed to people from backgrounds that may be very different from your own. You’ll be challenged, by professors and fellow students, to analyze the assumptions you hold.
You will need to determine what your standard is going to be before you make those decisions.
This isn’t just limited to college. In today’s world, with the proliferation of information through the internet and other media, there is a tidal wave of opinions and facts – some true, some not, waiting for us.
So how do we find truth?
C.S. Lewis, a contemporary and friend of “Lord of the Rings” author J.R. Tolkien, was a prolific writer himself in the last century. He was devoted to the pursuit of truth. He found it in the Bible.
Lewis was a wise man, and here’s some of that wisdom that pertains to what we’re experiencing right now in our generation: “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth; only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.”
Class of 2022, may you find good paths!