What I do as my life’s work: I observe constantly and I think about what people do and why. I think about what they want to be, and who they are. And sometimes, in moments of frustration, I come out with sarcastic babble like my first three columns.

But I am a man with a positive purpose and I have to get focused on it.

You are not alone. You absolutely matter. You are Truth embodied. I hope you’ll join me in this conversation.

This column, the corresponding Facebook group I’ll describe, and this small movement is about Truth. This is the One True Thing Experiment.

Don’t worry, I’m not talking specifically about religious truths, political truths or any of those truths people think are absolute but are actually as varied and subjective as we are.

This is about finding and sharing your own truths, what motivates you to live and what can inspire the rest of us to do the same.

Because none of us progress in the areas that matter if we let each other suffer.

One True Thing is an effort for us to share our various “truths,” not in competition for the best Truth, but in the genuine spirit of doing the most radical thing possible: loving and connecting to our fellow humans instead of becoming jaded and looking at everyone else as a hazy, opaque mist of strangers like society encourages us to do – or worse, as hidden enemies waiting for the chance to pounce.

I’m tired of being jaded, I’m tired of paranoia. I want to live out loud, live bold and be happy. I want to live True.

We stay docile and controllable when we feel isolated and unconnected. When we feel confident and connected, we create, we empathize, we save each other.

We free the bold, reckless gods within ourselves and become so busy enjoying life together we forget jealousy and hate.

I got married to my best friend two years ago, and a month or so before, some friends and I thought we’d have a hardy bachelor weekend camping in the woods. It turned into something much better.

Someone randomly threw me a ball while we were sitting around the fire and while I was holding it I had an idea.

These guys were to be my groomsmen, friends I’d had for life, but men are always encouraged to just talk in abstract ideas or concrete techniques and plans – but never to directly talk about our feelings, what’s in our hearts, our fears and vulnerabilities or our hidden dreams.

I decided that was bullshit and I told them how much I loved them, how much I appreciated their friendship and their love and respect for Lauren, my fiancée.

Then I said, “That’s One True Thing. Now, I’m going to pass the ball to someone else, and I just want to hear One True Thing from you.”

We ended up doing this for hours around the fire pit and I found out things I’d never known about my very best friends: secret hurts, hopes and dreams.

I feel closer to all of them because of this. I feel like we broke down some of society’s barriers that night and just became, as Ron Burgundy says, “co-people” (No, we didn’t go to PleasureTown).

The Plan:

Write a Letter to the Editor or join the One True Thing Facebook group and just say one true thing on the Wall.

It doesn’t have to be epic (but it can be!), just something you need to get off your chest, something that hurts you or builds you up, a thought, a mantra, an observation, a credo – just something real and true and from a spirit of helping.

Once we build a few up let’s comment on each other’s comments, and so on, until we’ve built an interdependent web that’s whatever the people involved want it to be.

A system, for once, that is not of control or coerced participation, but a free-form movement as big or little as its members require.

No gods, no masters here. Just people talking Truth as we can see it.

I’ll be happy even if no one responds because of the inner change brought to me by the process of taking the leap to put this out there.

Each time we put ourselves out there and live through being burned (or through having some fantastic connection), we become stronger, more defined in an indefinable way, more human and more True.

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