 Ted, Truth, Truman Hat © 1994 Ginger Henry Geyer tinted porcelain with underglaze 3 1/2" x 7" x 9" A good friend of mine has a favorite old hat which he wears when gardening. It's his Harvard alumni cap, and it has seen better days. The real cap is emblazoned with a crimson crest for the 350th anniversary of the university, and the word VERITAS. Veritas--truth--now that's a loaded word. Among many other scriptural references to truth, I found that John 8: 31-32 is appropriate for this hat. Omitting verse 31 and going straight into verse 32, and carved in stone at many institutions of higher learning is a partial statement of Jesus: "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free"....implying that scholarly truth is the path to freedom. The preliminary to that is "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know..." The porcelain rendition of the hat also begged for a new crest. Instead of the big 350, there are three crosses--or " T 's"--which stand for the obvious, or for the three big "T's" of this piece, Ted, Truth, and Truman. I recalled that my friend has a portrait of Harry Truman in his office, and I vaguely remembered some Truman quote about truth. It's a good one, now written on the front of the cap: "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." |