Our world is full of fake! Anything from fake pictures to fake news! Fake comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, religions, ideologies, beliefs and actions. Fake is flashy! Fake is fun (It has to be fun in some ways, otherwise people wouldn’t be drawn to it)! Fake is tricky! Fake is deceptive! Fake appears real . . . and therein lies the problem!
Fake appears real, plain and simple. As a result, Fake opens doors; closes minds; spreads lies; creates confusion; divides people; evades detection; vilifies causes; weakens vision; destroys resolve; confounds reason! Fake hollows out the soul of man.
Marjorie Williams’ book The Velveteen Rabbit tackles the problem of Fake by defining Real! In the next few posts, I will take phrases from this powerful little book and add a few thoughts about how we might do better as human beings by pursuing the Real rather than the Fake.
The first quote goes like this: “Real isn’t how you are made. It’s a thing that happens to you.”
We live in an instant world. Drive up to a speaker box, order your food or beverage, drive to the window, pay for it and pick it up at the next window. Fast! Quick! Easy! Instant communications. Instant pictures. Instant apps that allow us to alter reality. One of the outgrowths of this Instant World in which we live is the rapidity with which we embrace the Fake. Finding and verifying the Real takes too long! It takes time, effort and energy! Fake is easier than Real! Fake also subtly and insidiously promises to deliver Real . . . but it cannot!
The message of this first quote is that Real is something that happens to you and it does so over time rather than over night. Becoming Real is a process, not an event. It is the development of character rather than the demonstration of cleverness. It happens to us through the purposeful struggles of life. It happens to us as we discover and live humility. It happens to us when allow ourselves to love and be loved. Real is not how we are made. It’s a thing that happens to us.
I am hopeful that more and more of us will turn our back on the Fake and begin allowing the Real to happen to us!
Peace!
Mark E. Hundley
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