Pliny the Elder is reputed to have said that truth can be found in wine: in vino veritas or “in wine, truth.” The inference seems to be that the muddled mind may be unable to formulate a lie after quaffing a few flagons of chianti. For Jules Joseph Lefebvre, La Vérité (“The Truth”) takes the form of a woman holding a light aloft in the darkness. Oscar Wilde observed that the pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Truth seems to have become even more elusive in the modern age. “In social media veritas” does not have quite the right ring to it. Neither does “in cable news veritas” nor “in political rhetoric veritas.” Truth seems to be missing from the world stage and the great halls of government. Truth may only exist in small places. In a wedding vow or kiss on grandma’s cheek.Perhaps a Sunday walk in the park. Always in a line of poetry or a kitchen-table conversation - perhaps over a glass of wine.
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