Let's be real

England does not exist.

I know there are pictures and historical records. I have friends who claim they live there, too, but since I have never been to England, it is not real to me.

Man has never set foot on the moon either. You know how I know? I wasn't there.

I don't completely subscribe to the empirical school of thought that says reality is defined only by first hand experience or by observation, yet it strangely makes much sense to me. My father once told me to believe nothing that I hear and only half of what I see. If he were to offer this advice today, he might add, believe nothing that you read and definitely nothing that you find on the Internet.

So what is real? If I told you I saw God yesterday, do I need to prove it? Why would anyone believe what is claimed on the Ghost Hunters TV show? If ghosts really exist, why has no one ever provided undeniable evidence?

Santa Claus is real to young children, and I must say I still visualize his sleigh landing upon the roof of my house. Now the Easter Bunny has always been a stretch for me. In fact if I ever see a giant bunny hopping around with a basket of chocolate eggs, I'm running the other way. I'll do the same if a clown comes my way. That's real fear for me.

So here's what I think is undeniable. Whatever it is in my mind is real to me, but not to everyone else. Each person holds his own truth. If you believe you see fairies dancing on your lawn in the early morning, then they must be there, and you hold no burden to prove it to anyone else.

Yet this does pose another problem. If the unseeable is only seeable to me then I have to wonder, how did it get there? Something must have put it there or am I just crazy? I have always been a skeptic, questioning the truth of everything outside my own mind. I am not so gullible to believe someone who tells me there's a Martian living in his house, yet if I see the Martian too, then that's proof enough. Seeing ghosts or aliens is a very personal experience, certainly not one that I can have from so called supernatural evidence produced on TV shows.

There are textbook opinions about how to open the mind to what is real. In the 19th century, a group of people who called themselves Transcendentalists proclaimed that spirituality was to be discovered in the deep woods, within a sanctuary of trees and lakes and sky where one could cleanse his mind from believing other people's ideas. Once pure in nature's spirit, he would realize a perfect reality of his own thoughts. Peace of mind and freedom from stress also come from a sensory awareness of what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the "tonic of wilderness." This is all beautifully real to me.

Yet to another, the reality of the woods is a terrible terrain filled with snakes, ticks, bears, rocks and mud. Perceptions are strictly a product of the individual. I create my reality and you create yours.

Singer, songwriter, and actress Demi Lovato said, "I try to keep it real. I don't have the time to worry about what I'm projecting to the world. I'm too busy being myself."

If you believe that you are a reincarnated soul of a Civil War soldier, and you have evidence to prove it to yourself, then it's real to you and it doesn't have to be real to anyone else. Besides what fun is there in thinking reality is non-existent unless we all have to agree? The world is over-crowded with followers of other people's ideas. To quote Robert Frost, "I took the road not taken and it has made all the difference."

I would love to have a fantasy dinner with Katharine Hepburn, Mickey Mantle, John F. Kennedy and Mark Twain. They can tell me about their unique realities. I won't have to believe a single word they say, but that's okay. It's their stories, not mine. Maybe we can reserve a nice restaurant somewhere in heaven.

On second thought, maybe they can meet me in Jim Thorpe. Heaven does not exist. Never been there.