Long ago, in Greece, I am told by Owen Barfield, the word theoria described a way of seeing, or beholding that was enlightening, insightful or useful. It was not primarily concerned with determining what is actually the case. We moderns are married to a strange form of reductivism that is inclined to immediately dismiss that which can be shown to fail our tests for formal validity. For most of human history, only specific branches of knowledge would be thus concerned, and they hovered on the waters of inspired curiosity, personal experience, wonder, local traditions, and what we call myth. None of science fiction was ‘true’ when written, but the field comprises a library of invaluable and often prophetic perspectives that vastly transform what we are capable of seeing, imagining, and relating to.

Formal truth is not the arbiter of value. Especially as it relates to relationships… and seeing.