I went to an estate sale this morning on the south side of Ypsilanti.  It was an old cool house filled with old cool things.  I went in and asked if their were any records.  They said they thought there were a few lying around somewhere.  I looked everywhere.  No records.  I picked up a few antique instruments, thought about buying them.

Then I went downstairs.  I was about to leave when I saw on top of a cabinet in the corner there were a pile of old walking canes.  Intrigued, I took a closer look and found the truth stick.  It looked like a cane, but there were hand painted pictures and symbols, Native American style.  It was incredibly worn and aged, it looked like it was 80 years old.  The price was 6 dollars.  I paid for it and left, no longer caring about the records.

My friend Gerard has a truth stick.  He was approached by a street vendor in Jamaica who tried to sell him a bunch of hand made jewelry and other stuff.  He said no thanks.  The vendor looked at him and said, “Ah, I know what you want.”  He went to his truck and came back with a hand carved stick made from a hard, lightweight wood found in Jamaica.  There were pictures and symbols carved in the side.  Gerard happily paid the $20 for the truth stick and thanked the vendor.

Gerard took the stick up North to the Farm for the Campfire.  My dogs got into a vicious fight over a piece of deer carcus they found in the woods.  They never fight, but they went at it like they were going to kill each other.  We tried throwing our beers on them, yelling, but nothing was working.  They started to draw blood, and Gerard grabbed the truth stick and was able to pry them off each other and we grabbed each dog and stopped the fight.  Then we sat and listened to the Bob Dylan theme time radio hour all night, listening to old Bob talk about truth and play songs about the turth while the truth stick sat wedged into the sand by the fire pit. 

I wanted one bad after that, but I wasn’t really thinking about it until I found this one.  It feels good in my hand.  It’s short, it’s meant to be held when sitting down.  Truth sticks are used in the Native American and other cultures when discussing the truth.  People sit around the campfire in a circle and pass the stick around and contribute something to the community truth.  In American cultures, a few people know about truth sticks, and it apparently is used in the same way, although usually with the help of mass consumptions of alcohol.

I wish I knew the story of my truth stick.  But I’m sure whoever owned it before me, in that old house in Ypsi, is glad that I have it.