THE TRAGEDY OF ILLUSORY REALITY
Compliments of the Season from your favorite absconder from
the creative duty of writing. I wrote on this blog just once last year, I
actually managed to match my personal record of laziness set the previous year.
This is not a record I am proud of, and this year, I have determined to pummel
procrastination into submission and write as much as I can. So help me God. And
for those of you who dropped some friends last year, I hope you have not
started picking up some new ones already this year, just to come and disturb us
at the end of the year with news that you will be dropping them again.
With the usual apologies, resolutions, and subs out of the
way, let me get to the reason why I am here very early this year (aside pummeling
procrastination) – I think reality is being replaced with illusion, so I need
to find out if I am the odd one out still living here while others have
migrated to an alternate world where white is black, and red is green. The
reality, where we take everything on Social Media as the perfect depiction of
people’s lives and we therefore judge our own lives as not being up to par
based on that, has become such an epidemic. I don’t want to sound like an
alarmist, but this is actually a deeper epidemic at the same level as substance
abuse as well as pseudo-literacy, especially when you combine all together as
it is common nowadays.
Every day, people upload dance videos on Snapchat and
Instagram, and we are assuming they are always happy. These are all lies, no
one person is always happy, and no one person, who is truthful to themselves,
is always sad. People will most likely share the pictures of their vacation,
but not the picture of the hard work which went into making the money to go on
the vacation, probably they even took a loan to go on the trip. Your friends
are more likely to share their pictures in a plane, but not in a NAPEP. You
see, people’s DPs are their representatives, and their statuses are their alter
egos, those are not their “real faces”, most of the savage lions on social
media are real life lambs - everything is make-believe. That this illusory
reality drives some people to having mood swings, becoming depressed, and push some
to even end it all with suicide is extremely alarming and dishearteningly worrying.
Self-styled Influencers and Life-Coaches are the Platos and
Aristotles of today sharing nuggets about all topics, half of which they do not
have basic knowledge of, and most people take those half-baked information as
gospel truth and start using them as gauges for their personal lives –
YOLO – Anyone
ever told you you will live twice before? Even Bhuddists don’t believe you will
come back as you.
Sleep is for the weak
– OK. Be forming hard, by the time you have a nervous breakdown, it is a pity
you will be a mental wreck and you might not even be able to differentiate
between weak and strong.
Live today, tomorrow
is not assured – Hmmmmnnnnn. Tomorrow will become assured, and you will
have to live with the consequences of the horrible decisions and the stupid
actions of today, and what do you do?
True love exists, and
you don’t have to chase after it, it will find you wherever you are – Oooshey
Love Doctor of the House of Romance. The one who compiled the encyclopedia of
love.
Hey people, the hard truth is that we all cannot achieve the exact same things in life. Everyone is not going to be super rich, and we are not all
going to be super-successful. By sheer serendipity, some are born far ahead of
others, and they will always remain ahead bar some catastrophes of epic
proportion. Not all children will be brilliant, not all marriages will
celebrate diamond jubilees, not everyone will be healthy, these are just the
realities of life. However, it does not mean we cannot achieve happiness or
personal progress, we as individuals, and the variables within our individual control should be the
yardsticks we use to measure our personal progresses which should determine our
state of happiness.
You know your story, you know your dreams; you know where
you started from, you know where you are going. Let’s continue to set realistic
personal goals and dedicate all our means to achieving them. Let’s periodically
take stock, carry out objective appraisals, and tweak when necessary, that’s
progress. The misguided belief that we are the dregs of the Earth and that
everyone else is flexing and happy based on what they post on social media or is nothing but an illusion.
In a simple way, between the colour White and colour Black, there are countless shades of Grey, you could just be the dark grey at the moment, and frankly, everyone is just another shade of grey, just keep adding more of white, and you are on course to becoming your favourite shade of grey.
In a simple way, between the colour White and colour Black, there are countless shades of Grey, you could just be the dark grey at the moment, and frankly, everyone is just another shade of grey, just keep adding more of white, and you are on course to becoming your favourite shade of grey.
Thank You!
God Bless Us All!!
See You Next Time!!!
'DPs are their rep. and statues are their altar egoes'
ReplyDeleteKnew this before now...
Going through words from school of thought like this everyday will go along way. Thanks, sir Rash.
Great piece!
ReplyDeleteInteresting read!
ReplyDeleteInsightful! Keep it coming Sir Rash.
ReplyDeleteStimulating read. I hope you keep writing and succeed at pummeling procrastination.
ReplyDeleteWould the next post include a challenge to drive this point home? Looking forward to it.
Good one sir!
ReplyDeleteReality always wins over illusion at the end. So let illusion sun itself, all it wants. Person eye go open at the end.
Haha! Some people argue that white and black are not colours though.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I think social media statuses and posts are mostly a reflection of what we want to be rather than what we are. With the advent of filters and software like photoshop? Sigh!
What do they say again; "fake it till you make it".
Nice piece!
Love this ....Thank you for this reminder to be realistic with life goals.
ReplyDelete