Member-only story
Rubbing Salt In
The Universality of Salty Truth
By Jane Tawel
February 13, 2020
Truth tends to be one of those elements that we like to help ourselves to, but don’t particularly like others pouring onto us. Truth, like salt, often seems to be a matter of taste, but a great chef will know otherwise. Pouring a lot of salt onto a dish that someone has made for you, means first of all, you don’t want to bite into it, don’t want to “listen” to the food provided. There are many people who salt first and think later. But there are also many of us who are afraid of using too much salt, and so we serve up “meals” that are nice, but tasteless; lives that are “okay”, but not what our lives could be with a little salty truth.
A lot of our taste buds, in this country, have been thrown off-whack by an overuse of salt in fast food diets and sodium-enhanced snacks. Truth as well-salted nourishment has been mistaken for the fast-food meals of Fox news and sports games and binging on Netflix and hook-ups. And like anything that is not ever going to be a complete meal, we feel full only for a time.
Making a real meal takes time and love and openness to suggestions and salt. Making a real life takes time and love and openness to others and truth.