One of the values parents seek to teach their children is honesty. The vehicle used in that endeavor is one of teaching children to tell the truth.

This idea remains unchanged as people become adults and enter work.

Until then, truth has become the idea to be able to attain certainty. Knowing the truth is there to simplify decision making, to assess the behavior of others or to evaluate a situation.

The problem is, that it’s an illusion. At most, it is a temporary truth, something they believe to be true in that moment.

Truth then can be found in the actions. Actions make change happen. They transform reality from what it was before and become a shared truth.

In most cases what ensues actions is a search for understanding, a search for the why. But that truth is one that belongs to those acting and cannot be fully uncovered. It lies in the combination of conscious and unconscious assessment of the situation and in the ability to create the action intended.

Action becomes the embodied truth.

People rarely will be aware enough of the way they protect or defend themselves. Nor is it possible for most to have a detailed enough understanding of the system they are acting in. Our partial knowledge of both making it difficult to fully detail the truth.

What we are left with is our ability to give meaning to the action.

Building on this it becomes evident that people’s ability to create shared meaning describes their ability to build relationships.