Let's get REAL.

Let’s get this straight: I’m a realist. Probably the realest person you’ll know. Sometimes, maybe too real. And when you’re in my position, there really aren’t that many people that are real anymore. The hard truth is that almost nobody is real anymore. No thing is real anymore. We all exist within these realities that are so perfected and structured that we fail to see what is actually real anymore.

Ok, here’s what I mean. We all love VR right? Those little spectacles we put on our heads that takes us into an alternate reality where we can experience never before wonders. But we can all agree on one thing: That living in and believing the virtual world is the real world would be quite detrimental to your well being. Right? (If you don’t agree, you can stop reading because, if true, real happiness doesn't matter to you. These following words won’t matter to you).

If you do, then I am assuming that reality means something to you. You understand that existing in a world that is present but fake might be fun for a brief moment, but is deducting time from reality.

Just take a look at our lil devices, our lil social media apps that almost every millenial and (now) baby boomer exists upon. Is anything on there actually real?? We see so much of people and their perfect little lives and their perfect little photos and we craft our own perfect little lives and photos onto it, but what don’t we see? Truth. Reality. Cause I’m sorry to break it hun, but LIFE AIN’T PERFECT. And NOBODY’S life is perfect. So those people you worship. Those lil figures you follow so diligently as they attend beautiful galas on your idevice might not even be as happy as you are. So stop following their lives, instead be inspired for how to proceed with your own. Because the only thing you are doing if you are following without inspiration is keeping yourself from chasing your life and being happy. We’re so comfortable double tapping and on occasion writing short sentences of praise on our phones for people who we have no connection to, that we tie our existence into.

But this issue is so far beyond our little devices. Just like our perfectly structured Instagram

feeds follows our perfectly structured lives.

What we often are chasing in life is the same thing that our lives appear to be to others. We are chasing that same fake picture perfect life we have on Instagram. But that’s not real. When we’re not in the comfort of our job or our schooling, we surround ourselves with the comfort of our TV, our books, our home, our recliner, our bed, and maybe a few cute brunch spots. But just like our Instagram feeds, it’s all a facade. One that keeps us locked away from what true. What’s real. We get so comfortable living vicariously through the journeys of our protagonist in our favorite TV show or book, that we forget that everything they are doing. Every part of their lives is something we can experience too. (except maybe superpowers)

Peep the irony, but this is a line from my favorite TV show Westworld: “Humans fancy that there's something special about the way we perceive the world. And yet we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts (robots) do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next.”

The truth is, we don’t need VR, a game, a phone, or a TV to live in a fantasy. We are already living in a fantasy.

A perfectly designed one that keeps us happy and content with the way our life is proceeding. Sure, an Oculus, or an idevices can make you a jolt of dopamine on occasion whilst transporting you to a different dimension. In the same way, this game we think of as reality also occasionally gives us a jolt of dopamine. But what does it make us feel that much more often?

Stressed.

Defeated.

Alone.

So the big question left that you all must now be asking is:

“If we are living in a fantasy, WHAT THE FUCK IS REAL?”

Now this might sounds insanely contradictory. But what is real is truly for you to decide. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

I know what’s real to me. But, the truth is, that might not be real to you. This world, this simulation, the games you play, the places and the things you spend most of your time in/with is what is most real to you. And unless you are willing to remove the VR lens stuck on your head, that is all that will ever be real to you.

“So if reality is subjective, what’s real to you?”

Oh what a brilliant question, anonymous nonexistent reader?

This has been a question I have always asked myself and my answer always used to be our mother: Gaia. But I always knew I was missing part of the equation.

And only recently did I realize that I have known it all along. That Mother Gaia was real, but so are her offspring, the Homo Sapien Sapiens.

Us. People.

Reaaaal People.

And I know that might sound like I’m excluding some people. But we can all be honest here.

There’s a looooooooooooooooooot of fake people in this world.

How did I realize this?

Let me set the stage.

I went out to an open salsa night. The salsa congregation was on the end of the pier. And before it, was a drum circle. On my way to salsa, I encountered mi amigo Drew at the drum circle and decided to join in on a little bit of dancing. I stayed a while then headed in to salsa where my clumsy ass decided to do some terrible bit of dancing and failed miserably. I returned to the drum circle defeated but also alive.

Drew, myself, as well as another amazing lady continued dancing at this circle for another half hour before the salsa event was done for the night. Since Salsa was on the end of the pier, everyone who attended had to pass us on the way back. Once salsa ended, the masses of people filing out saw us dancing and joined in on the movement.

At the peak, over a hundred people joined in on the movement, forming a giant circle around the musicians. We did this for hours on end, the drummers feeding off of the dancers’ energies, the dancers feeding off of the drummers’ energies, and together the drummers and dancers all putting their voices in, singing and chanting along, until all we were doing was feeding off of each other and producing positive energies and love.

People didn’t have to be good singers, good dancers, or good drummers to join. They just had to be present. Truly present. And everybody was. Nobody was on their phones, worrying about things that were not there, because we acknowledged that we were just living and enjoying our time spent together.

To think this all started from the momentum of a few dancers and a few drummers coming together on an unorganized night.

Here we were. All just living and breathing. Giving ourselves the time and space to just live and breathe. Be free. To me, to me is what the world is all about. That was real. That was so real, it was magical. And in some ways, it’s sad that I think it was magical because that is how we were meant to live. That is how humans, for centuries, lived. Gathering, singing, dancing, and making music, loving both it and one another. Every single person was exuding joy and fun. Giving life and receiving it in return. I had never done something like this in my life before, for all 19 years of my life, and finally during the 5-6 hours I spent there I found my truth. My reality. This. These people. That was real.

Just think for a second. When was the last time you went out and really let yourself live? Taken off that virtual reality lens disguised as the comfort of your home, your work, your privacy, your space and really interacted with the world and each other as our species (and many others) always did. With the people in this world?

I once considered myself adventurous. But whenever I venture, I only interact with people I know. Or else, if I am alone, I stay alone, keeping to myself as I sit in a park or on the long subway ride on the way to the park. So frightened that if I talk to someone, I will be distracting from their day, having to apologize for taking away time from their phones for a brief minute. We’re so scared of human interaction that we turn to our little devices to not have to ever hold a conversation. But our species isn't meant to be fixated on a little colorful brick featuring human photos and words attached to our hands while real live humans with words pass right in front if us. We were meant to congregate, exist together. Build communities. Build love. But we’re sooooo fucking comfortable. I, for one, can admit, I’m so fucking comfortable. So comfortable viewing the world with my virtual reality lens that simplifies everything and every person down to fake images that I don’t even live.

But the truth is, whether you’re shy and introverted, or extroverted and outgoing, in this day and age, we are constantly listening to voices. If not by newspapers, then by our phones. If not from TVs, than from books or our computers. We all have our poison. Because at the end of the day, we hear so many voices swarming around us, but also hear almost no living voices. We hear so many talking heads on YouTube or on news casts who we don’t know or physically see, but are almost incapable of talking to people we do know are right next to us. We treat it almost as a bother to hold a conversation with the human being right next to us yet it’s so easy for us to “view” others millions of miles away.

So choose your reality.

Do you want to exist within a game? A simulation? A phone? A home? A office? Or do you want to exist within the crazy? Within community? Within love? With your loved ones? With possibly new loved ones?

That is for you to decide.

But just know that the real can often surprise you. Especially the real you never realized was Real.

So once in a while, try take off your invisible VR lenses, or switch em out for another one, so you can let yourself see beauty.

That’s beyond the scope of your reality.

Until next time.

WDWF