Text by Patty Simon | Image by Dick Simon
India

This is more of a thought than an essay.

Here is the thought.

We have now traveled to four countries: Rwanda, South Africa, India and Sri Lanka. They had an invisible thread of similar histories all related to independence and change of governments, policy and conflict. Dick and I like to dig into the history. One of Dick’s missions is understanding post conflict. I Iike reading guidebooks and historical writing and talking to guides and locals to try to put this complicated puzzle together.

This is what I have found and it came to me when we were actually talking to a documentary filmmaker and I found myself strongly disagreeing with some of the content. It brought about a discussion about bias, the power of a filmmaker, and ultimately the question – “How the heck does one get to the actual truth of a situation?”

It seems impossible to get to the pure facts. Therefore, I back off, humble myself to the not-knowing, trying to accept the complexity and am left to an openness to every moment I am in a culture or read about one. I always come to this acknowledgment – “there is always more to the story”.