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Let’s bore a tunnel through illusion until we reach reality

Many children, when facing something they are afraid of, simply close their eyes, thinking that whatever causes the fear will simply go away if they don’t see it. As we say in Spanish, “If your eyes don’t see it, your heart won’t feel it.”

As adults, perhaps we don’t close our eyes, but that doesn’t mean we are facing reality. In fact, we use a number of strategies, as ineffective as those used by children. If I don’t step on the scale, then my weight is OK. If I don’t open the bank statement, then I still have money. If I don’t check my blood pressure, then my blood pressure is normal.

There are countless similar strategies, perhaps because we live at a time when it is too easy to get distracted, to find a escape-goat for a problem, and to believe there is an easy answer to all of our problems just a phone call or a click away.

But closing our eyes to our personal or social reality doesn’t make that menacing reality to disappear. Whatever form of escapism we adopt, from noble ones to detestable ones, is only an alternative, but never a solution.

Whatever the case, the reality we don’t want to see, the situation we leave in the dark, is still influencing our lives and perhaps even eroding our lives, in the same way that unseen dark matter and dark energy are moving the universe, according to some scientists.

Reality is tough. Sooner or later, it will surprise us or shock us. Promises will be broken. Dreams will never become reality. Friends will betray us. Projects will simple vanish. Pain will surround us. Problems will overwhelm us.

For that reason, it is easier to build a fantasy world and find refuge there.  Perhaps such a world exists only in our imagination, such as the fantasy world created by Sam Lowry, the protagonist of the movie Brazil (1985), when he wants to escape from bureaucracy and technology.

The happy ending at the end of the movie happens only inside his mind.

We all build our own fantasy worlds and imaginary happy endings. Sometimes we follow some religious or spiritual practices. Other times we are obsessed with sports. Or we become addicts to controlled substances and other uncontrolled one.

Sometimes we hide behind the façade of helping others, so we don’t need to focus on our own problems.

Whatever the case, many of us don’t want to face our reality, which will be different for each of us. Our denial is so naïve and dangerous as it is thinking a certain symptom will go away if we don’t go to the doctor.

Ignorance of the law is not excuse to break the law. Ignorance of reality is not an excuse either.

One of my professors of philosophy frequently said our mission should be “to bore tunnels until we reach reality.” Perhaps it’s time to close our eyes to all the distractions so we can face our reality.

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