As we enter a brand New Year (for most), one fact remains unchanged—throughout time and life from cradle to grave we will find ourselves constantly juggling various elements and degrees of fantasy and reality.
As infants and children we are given more than our share of fantasy although usually with some moral purpose or lesson to be learned. Nursery rhymes and fairy tales with pageantry are generally laced with morals intended to influence us throughout life that today are petty much learned the hard way—if at all.
The primary agent used in smooth, healthy progressive separation of fact from fantasy is love (the primary underlying basis for the preceding Christmas season), laced with proper education and dedication. But such love is more difficult to share as families of today are divided earlier in life with only TV and the www at home or outsiders to complement (or nullify) the transition.
As reality is defined as “things as they actually exist,” I am often reminded of a comment I once made about a family member who just could not face reality, when my son (Stan) instantly snapped back, “who can?” It has since made me more cognizant of the fact that all reality is not that easy to accept and certainly not understood. Therefore the greatest hope is to be able to accomplish the fete while juggling both in a manner that will complement and not nullify one another. The inconceivable depth of such a small word must not be pre-judged as right or wrong but rather respected and dealt with at different levels of search, understanding, acceptance or rejection, according to individual capacity—which also varies. As attempts to exceed any capacity could prove detrimental, the primary thing to remember is, “Our inability or refusal to accept reality does not change reality–only our lives.”
Also synonymous with the immediately passing holiday season is the equally misunderstood word “peace” wished for all. But peace is not simply the absence of war. Peace is an attitude of tranquility that can exist in the heart and under the most adverse conditions or circumstances. War, likewise is an attitude that no amount of disarming will alter as it will find different modes of expression. Subsequently enactment of more stringent gun control laws or treaties of disarmament must be balanced with the transformation and spiritualization of attitudes or they will be totally ineffective.
Therefore, “Create in us pure hearts and renew a tranquil conscience within us…” begins one of many Baha’i prayers to aid our spiritualization process. There is also an entire book on “The Reality of Man.” Would God we could swell our troops mirroring such reality to the world. (Investigate! – 1-800-22UNITE)
