Monday, July 1, 2013

Keeping It Real



Just reading about some friends who are having a wonderful vacation on the other side of the states and thought about what a vacation is. A vacation is an escape from reality.
An entire industry revolves around creating a fantasy world for vacations. Travel by a multitude of variations, stay in luxurious settings, dine on the finest cuisine, be pampered like royalty and spend more than you ever imagined.
We work and save for months for a few days in a dream world. Like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, we create delusional thoughts that a week in a fantasyland will make our mundane reality worthwhile.
 Now a change of scenery is always refreshing and breaking the routine can recharge the internal battery. A vacation can be an adventure to try new things or travel to places that are educational.
We even form holidays to enforce our love of make believe. Valentine’s Day will bring us love, Halloween will allow us to dress up, Thanksgiving offers us abundance and Christmas give us an excuse to pay too much for presents we will never use. Add alcohol to the mix and you’ve got a fantasy party.
Are we so disappointed at the face in the mirror that we fantasize about the perceived celebrity within us? Traveling to Vegas or New York City can drown our day-to-day life in bright lights and fast action. Yet there is always a time when reality hits and the daily grind of paying the bills, fixing the kid’s lunch, sitting in endless meetings, and listening to the constant complaints rears it’s ugly head.
Even the reality shows that are all the rage on television are staged. How many good looking young people do you see wandering the aisles of the grocery store with camera and microphones all around them? Perhaps life is just too difficult to handle without escapism?
We live with the perception that if we surround ourselves with the items of fame, celebrity, or anything else sold to us by our icons; we too can live the life of Reilly. Yet all the celebrities and stars of the golden screen every worry about the car being in the shop or your kids doctor’s appointment or annual review or that pimple on the end of your nose.
Just keeping it real.

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