Fantasy Vs Reality - Tuning into Reality

It amazes me how little difference the average person sees in fantasy and reality. I mean sure, I too spent the majority of my life unable to distinguish the true from the false, and I attribute this to spending entirely too many hours as a preschool age child in front of the TV, watching things like Gilligan's Island, Dragnet, Bonanza, the Twilight Zone and then having my dad come home every night and turning on the news with the phrase, "I want to see what's happening in the world". 

I, of course, thought that if my dad's shows were real, that Gilligan and the professor actually were stuck on that island, Sgt. Friday really did change the names to protect the innocent, little Joe really had all them horses, and thousands really were dying every day in Vietnam. I was very young and no one ever explained the difference to me. 

Fast forward to five years down the road and I discovered alcohol, and lo and behold, I had a whole new impairment keeping me from telling the real from the unreal. Couple that with "tales from the dark-side of religion" about hell-fire and brimstone, Catholic saints in red suits, who watched my every move to see if I was naughty or nice and paid me off in presents accordingly, rabbits that came to life and passed out colored eggs and chocolate if I held my basket just right. Is it any wonder I was unable to tell the true from the false?

All around us, life is taking place one person at a time. One passing moment at a time, one love story at a time and we never even notice because we are so tuned into the false. Think about it... is there any truth to "Game of Thrones", is "Breaking Bad" REALLY happening? Is ANYTHING on the television actually real??? Or, is it as I have come to suspect all along... ALL Lies? If it is on the box is there any reality to it, or is it all designed to sell some product to the unsuspecting consumer they really do NOT need, at a price they cannot afford, to fix a problem they never had in the first place until some one came on the TV telling them "Here is the next wonder cure for (insert problem the drug cures)" and it can be your for only 19.95 and if you order now we will send you 2 for the price of one all you pay is the 80% of the cost P & H.

All the while people are actually dying in the streets at the hands of some 19-year-old video game junkie turned drone specialist, controlling unmanned devices of war against women and children on the other side of the planet because if he doesn't they will court-martial him/her, and if they tell the truth there is no place on earth they are safe from the very drones they spent their time using to blow up unarmed women and children on the other side of the planet. There are love stories taking place all around us all the time and they aren't found on the Real Housewives of Atlanta, Lost, or Big Brother.

They are happening in Ireland, Scotland, America, Haiti, you name it. People are falling in love, going on dates, holding hands, sharing a first kiss, feeding each other that first bite of wedding cake. Screw the Entertainment Industry! They are NOT Entertaining us with anything but lies and are passing it off as truth. At least Seth MacFarlaine has the guts to expose these bullshit lies for what they are and make fun of them, in order to get us to THINK! I Mean COME ON We are NOT Olympus and we have NOT Fallen, but there are REAL Terrorists in the streets in uniforms and carrying fully-LOADED automatic weapons, molesting the American public EVERY DAY! THIS is going on as well...

So the next time you want to know what's really wrong with the American Dream just ask yourself - is it REAL or is it just that, all a DREAM? You CAN fall in Love, there IS a right guy/gal for everyone and if you cannot find that person, look in the mirror and ask yourself "am I the right one?" Be the change you want to see in the world, put down the bottle, step away from the damned crack-pipe, put the phuquin needle back in the pack and step outside and breathe deep. Then, go and be of service to someone else, it will change your life forever, and who knows, you just might find out the right one was there waiting for you all along...

No matter which way you're going - go into the light...

I've been doing a lot of musing lately, with pen and paper and one of the understandings I have managed to work out is a parable of sorts. Now for those of you who will understand this, it caries a message for those who were raised in the 20th century. More the last quarter of the century than the latter is where it really hits home, but here it is...

Picture yourself sitting in front of a large 110" monitor, and before you is a list of options to choose from for your character. Oh did I mention you are building a character which you will be able to go into and experience whatever it is you choose to experience through this character.

You see the choices laid out before you and you begin the selection. Who is it making the selection you might ask, and you would be well to do so. Let's leave it at this; the one making the choices is the one who is going to experience the choices made. So laid out before you comes the list, and at first you see it and feel like a kid in a candy store as you begin making your selections... "I want some of this, and some of that, and OMG yes I want a lot of that please..."

Do you desire to experience Love? What kinds of Love do you desire to experience? Do you wish to experience Lust? What level of lust do you desire to experience? How about happiness? Yes! Okay, check, we want to experience happiness. How about sadness? Yes, we want to experience some of that as well, if for no other reason than to sweeten the experience of happiness. Who is to say what the reasons are for anyone to wish to experience what they choose, but they do. Do you wish to feel like a hero? If so how will you do this if no one steps up and agrees to be rescued? Then, a match, someone comes forth and says, "yes, I'll be your damsel in distress."

All too often we forget, that for every experience we have here in the grand amusement park, there must be someone who is willing to come forth and and say yes, I'll walk through this experience with you. As we go through the list, right there before our eyes we see a 3D model of a Human Suit. This is the suit our character will wear throughout the lifespan of the game/play/time here in the park. As you choose more of the experiences you wish to have the form revolves before your eyes, taking shape, slowly at first... It appears at first gender-less  but then, in the time period you have chosen to experience the life you desire, you say "I wish to know motherhood" and poof, gender established!

There before you a female of the species begins to take shape, you choose the hair color, eye color, body type, all of it. Then, once you have chosen all you wish to experience in the park, you pick the point on the time-line you wish to experience your desires. There are so many choices, each one altering ever so slightly the human suit, the cast of players, the supporting roles you will play as you go along and so much more. As you receive your final instructions prior to boarding the water-slide into the park you hear the following instructions...

"You can take nothing into the park with you."
"You can own nothing of the park while you are there."
"You can bring nothing home from the park when you leave."

You smile to yourself knowing this ain't your first rodeo...

Then it happens...

Wheeeee...... and as you are headed down the water-slide you hear, "Go into the Light...!"

Moments later you find yourself in the park and the adventure begins. You see the one who agreed to be your mother figure as she takes you to her breast and for that moment you exist in two worlds. You try to recall how you arrived at this place, and for that moment all seems right with the world. You wriggle the toes of your brand new human suit and look up as if to say thank you and you realize you don't have the words yet. Days pass, then weeks and months as the memory of your time in front of the machine of choosing fades and you cross over to be fully in the moment and nothing is ever the same again.

Years pass and you grow into the being you chose, having the experiences you chose. Love comes in all its forms and lust and joy and pain. Somewhere you read something which reminds you that this temporal time is first one thing, and then another. You delve fully into the beliefs of the times and get caught up fully in the days, and oh the nights...

Somewhere in the back of your mind there is a nagging feeling that you have forgot something very important, but it is brushed aside like yesterdays menu at the local Chinese takeout. Years pass and life goes on as life does, experiencing moments in an endless stream, one after the next, cataloging them, remembering them, cherishing them. Then something changes and you look in the mirror and realize the reflection is no longer one of youth. Time has begun to write its name in the wrinkles around your eyes and priorities begin to shift. 

At first fear comes to you when you realize that time has passed you by and there is so much left undone, unsaid. Time you imagine has now become the enemy and not the friend it once was in youth. So much has happened, lost in the haze of half remembered recollections and through it all there was something in the back of your mind, reminding you that there was something you had somehow forgotten  Then you lay your head to rest and you see a warm, familiar light, glowing. People are applauding your performance, you look out into the light and take a bow and then, as if you were never not there you step gingerly into the light and like a child have only one request... "I wanna go again"..
Then...