What drawing can teach us about truth

“When I was taught to draw, I was told to look carefully at my subject if I wanted to faithfully reproduce it. When you try to sketch a flower, if you approach it thinking you know what a flower looks like and you draw that, you’ll produce a flower—maybe a good-looking flower—but not the flower. You need to take the care and time to reject what you expect and draw what you see: shadows, shapes, absences, and blemishes, details that might surprise you.

If you don’t look at the flower properly, you’ll miss the complexity, the nuance, the beauty. We should approach our quest for truth in the same way. If we set aside our preconceptions and expectations and calmly build our picture on evidence and experience, we can see with more clarity and get closer to the truth.“

—Thomas Penny, 2021
Quaker journalist

Today’s Invitation

Set aside your preconceptions and expectations.

This Week’s Query

How does our modern world influence your relationship with the truth?

What spiritual concerns do fake news, AI, and social media bring up for you? How do you deal with these concerns?

Share your response!

Read the source of today’s quote
Banner art by Sophie Wood Brinker

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Author

  • Thomas Penny grew up as part of a Quaker family in Gloucestershire and has a rich experience of local and national Quaker service. He is a member of Blackheath meeting in south east London, where he has served as an Elder and a member of the clerking team. He has also spent many years as volunteer youth worker for Quakers and has served as Clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting’s Parliamentary Liaison Committee, a member of the Quaker Communications Committee and a Meeting for Sufferings member. He started his career working for local press in the West of England before working for national and international media organisations, including the Daily Telegraph and most recently as political correspondent for Bloomberg.

     

    View all posts