If you had to choose truth or happiness which would you choose? Granted they do not exist in isolation, sometimes they are partners one supporting the other, but other times truth kicks happiness out, or happiness pushes truth away. In those cases on which side of the line do we emerge? Sometime we don't ask the questions, because we don't want to know the truth, and that keeps us happy as reflected in the common saying, 'ignorance is bliss'. Thoreau says, "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth..."
Thoreau does not say that he doesn't want love, money or fame, only that he would choose truth first. It is human nature to want to feel good. We are constanly seeking the path that will lead to a better life, less pain, more fulfillment. Question is, at what cost? Joanna Brooks writes a weekly column, 'Ask Mormon girl" in which she figures that laying claim to happiness is so important that; "Some shut down vast regions of their inner lives so as to not risk harboring a feeling that doesn't measure up." Certainly part of what gets shut down are truths that hurt. Maybe we all do this to some extent, not because we can't stand to be unhappy, but because we are trying to survive.
Does it ultimately serve ours and the world's greater good to choose happiness over truth? Maybe it is our pattern of not looking at the truths about ourselves, our loved ones and the world around us that is putting us in a position to be 'trying to survive'. Maybe our compromises weaken our strength and lead to more compromises. So what is truth and who determines it anyway? We can only answer that for ourselves. Alexi Murdock sings that, "It's time to believe in what you know."
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