Monday, June 01, 2020

Eni & Me: the truth an the lie



Have you ever heard about the "Truth coming out of her well"? It is a painting from 1896 by Jeans-Léon Gérôme, a french painter and sculptor.

This work is linked to a "parable of the century" that says that, on a beautiful day, the truth and the lie met. And the lie told truth: "Today is a beautiful day! Isn't it?". The truth sighed, looked at the sky and agreed, because the day was, indeed, wonderful.

And they began to take a walk, and they walked together for a long time, until they reached the side of a well. The lie then tried the water and told truth: "The water is great! How about we have a bath together?". The truth was a little suspicious, but decided to try the water only to find out the water was very inviting. Then they undressed and began to have a bath.

Suddenly, in a sneaky way, the lie got out of the water, put on the truth's clothes and ran away. When the truth realized, it came out of the well furious and ran around trying to find the lie and get her clothes back.

The truth, then, ran naked through the streets, making its way through the people, who looked away from it with despise, anger and shame. And the poor truth, after running for a long time and searching in vain for its clothes, returned naked to the well and disappeared forever to hide her shame in the well's waters.

And since that day, the lie has been traveling around the world dressed in the truth's clothes, satisfying the needs of society because it has realized that the world has no desire to find the naked truth.

But there is another ending to this parable, that says: when the truth returned to the well, it refused to dress in the clothes of the lie and, because it had nothing to be ashamed of, the truth began to walk naked through the streets and villages. And that is why, since then, in the eyes of many people it is easier to accept the lie dressed as the truth than the bare truth.

Which ending of the story do you prefer?