Fiction or Reality?

Reality Check

“Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems, but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems incredible.”

Salman Rushdie

Do you ever contemplate the nature of reality? For so much of our lives, we accept that what is going on around us is “reality” and that anything we cannot reach with our senses, or our understanding, is not reality. I've long questioned that assumption, but now those questions have become larger and louder. Tom Clancy said, “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” For certain, reality—or that which we agree to call reality—does not always make sense. Monday night, when I listened to my friend talk about schizophrenia and the hallucinations that come with it, I wondered whether it's possible to go through a sort of societal schizophrenia—where we can't identify what is real and what is not, and then a further question arose—is anything real? As cynical as this sounds, I think it's a legitimate question. Albert Einstein said, “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

Most of us “oldies” look back to simpler times, before there were cell phones and computers, before the days of video game addiction and children “sexting” each other. We commiserate and talk as if the 1950's were ideal and so superior to today that there's no grounds for comparison. But, that was only somewhat true for half the population—mostly for white men, who held all the power, as well as the purse-strings. The rest of us—women, people with dark skin, and poor people—had few experiences that could be considered superior. There were good things about that time, of course—the freedom of childhood that our grandchildren no longer enjoy, and the more equal distribution of wealth. In my world, nobody had very much wealth, so it didn't create the kind of divisions we see today.

So, what is reality? Philip K. Dick described it this way, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” Humans are susceptible to creating their own version of reality. I'm reading Casey Cep's book, Furious Hours,” about a murder trial set in 1970's Alabama. In it, she describes the way that Voodoo was (and is) still practiced in the south right alongside Christianity—by the very same people. I saw something similar in Central America. The Mayan people went to mass in their Catholic churches, and then went out into the hills and worshiped their own gods. I wondered at the time how both those could be “real” for them. But “real” is what we perceive it to be, isn't it?

Reality is fluid. Which is all the more reason to respect each other's right to believe whatever we choose to believe and to look at life through our own lens—even when we think the other person's lens is twisted inside out. I think the most important thing is to keep a door open into your personal reality, so that others can come and go. They can add things and remove things, and you can make the decision in each and every moment what is “real” for you, and what isn't. And so can we all.

                                                           In the Spirit,

                                                                Jane