An autobiography never tells the truth. The author can try. But the facts are that his memories are subjective. They are also coloured by time. A writer of his own biography remembers the events as seen through the bias, prejudice, the foolishness and wisdom of his ego at the time in which he writes. He does not write about the past as it was. He writes about it as he remembers it. He remembers with nostalgia. His aversions and cravings about how things once were depend upon the feelings which are in his make up at time of writing. If he were to have written his story earlier, or later in life, it could have been presented in a different way.
A biographer, that is, a “third person,” can get get closer to the objective truth- but only of external events; of the actual physical things which happened. But he is on the outside. He cannot know the thoughts and feelings which have gone on within the human being of whom he writes. He can only guess at them. So a book of this nature, whether written by the story’s central figure, or by another who is viewing that person’s story in “third person,” is always a compromise between what really was and how it is interpreted and recorded in print. This is the First Part of the inaccuracy which makes for misunderstanding.
The Second Part of misunderstanding is the usual semantic one. The words the author uses are never interpreted exactly by the reader as they were meant to be when encoded verbally by the writer. My “dog” might be a black-and-brown German Shepherd, one reader’s might be a grey Airedale, whilst a second reader’s might be a white Miniature Poodle. Words are not precise instruments. Unlike the tools of mathematics which are interpreted exactly the same way by everyone around the world, even the most mundane nouns are “envisualised” slightly differently in every human mind. I mention all of this in order to make it clear that no matter how hard any one tries to bring his truth to another, he cannot do so with one hundred-percent exactitude. Our truth is an individual experience. Moreover, it changes as we change. We can only do our best to make it as clear as possible to our reader by being as descriptive as possible.
As the biographer of my own life story I was hard pressed for a title. But I am a strong believer in a totally planned universe. I don’t believe in chance. As Albert Einstein said, “God does not play dice with the universe,” and I am convinced of this. Everything which happens, does so because it was meant to. This does not preclude free will. Free will is included within the greater scheme of things. But I won’t go further into this in this introduction. I called the work, “Tom’s Karma” for obvious reasons. But at time of writing it seems that most of the “bad” aspects of this karma are behind me. I believe I have served my life purpose to this point. That is, I have worked through most of those emotional debts. Today an increasing sense of inner peace and harmony prevails. But to see how I got to this point in my emotional and mental life the reader will need to read my story. I hope you find it interesting.
A biographer, that is, a “third person,” can get get closer to the objective truth- but only of external events; of the actual physical things which happened. But he is on the outside. He cannot know the thoughts and feelings which have gone on within the human being of whom he writes. He can only guess at them. So a book of this nature, whether written by the story’s central figure, or by another who is viewing that person’s story in “third person,” is always a compromise between what really was and how it is interpreted and recorded in print. This is the First Part of the inaccuracy which makes for misunderstanding.
The Second Part of misunderstanding is the usual semantic one. The words the author uses are never interpreted exactly by the reader as they were meant to be when encoded verbally by the writer. My “dog” might be a black-and-brown German Shepherd, one reader’s might be a grey Airedale, whilst a second reader’s might be a white Miniature Poodle. Words are not precise instruments. Unlike the tools of mathematics which are interpreted exactly the same way by everyone around the world, even the most mundane nouns are “envisualised” slightly differently in every human mind. I mention all of this in order to make it clear that no matter how hard any one tries to bring his truth to another, he cannot do so with one hundred-percent exactitude. Our truth is an individual experience. Moreover, it changes as we change. We can only do our best to make it as clear as possible to our reader by being as descriptive as possible.
As the biographer of my own life story I was hard pressed for a title. But I am a strong believer in a totally planned universe. I don’t believe in chance. As Albert Einstein said, “God does not play dice with the universe,” and I am convinced of this. Everything which happens, does so because it was meant to. This does not preclude free will. Free will is included within the greater scheme of things. But I won’t go further into this in this introduction. I called the work, “Tom’s Karma” for obvious reasons. But at time of writing it seems that most of the “bad” aspects of this karma are behind me. I believe I have served my life purpose to this point. That is, I have worked through most of those emotional debts. Today an increasing sense of inner peace and harmony prevails. But to see how I got to this point in my emotional and mental life the reader will need to read my story. I hope you find it interesting.
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