REALITY – a poem

How is reality defined?

Seeing that each one

defines it differently.

Is it purely subjective?

The opposite of objective.

Meaning,

your reality

can differ from mine.

Yet, how do we communicate

if what I say

means something else to you

than what I intended?

And what you say

I interpret

differently?

Take Rose.

She presents as a she.

Yet to me

she merely is a he,

presenting as a she.

A he,

not a she,

to me.

Yet, when I address him,

I do so as a she.

To communicate effectively,

like talking in a foreign tongue,

I need to speak

not in my own tongue

to be understood.

And to understand.

Take the definition of Truth.

“What is truth”?

Asked Pilate,

an ancient character.

For millennia,

a subject

occupying philosophers

and preoccupying searchers after truth.

Igniting countless wars:

Religious,

political,

intergenerational

cultural

existential

territorial.

At times,

condensing into

a mere issue of semantics.

To add the preposition

“To me…”,

takes away the contention of

“I know, and you don’t”.

Which inflames

and shuts down.

If we aim

for effective communication,

yet insist

that reality is ours alone,

we hit massive walls

to being understood

and to understand.

To come back to Reality then,

is there such a thing?

“I think therefore I am,”

pronounced Descartes

and caused an avalanche of thought.

Much earlier,

“I AM’

pronounced His existence.

Defining His identity

His timelessness

And His unquestionable reality.

To everyone’s astonishment,

He confirmed it

while in the form of a man;

the main reason

they nailed Him to a cross.

Now, dealing with Truth,

the cousin of Reality,

do we fare any differently?

Again,

much controversy exists,

leading to the syndrome

Pilate must have been suffering from

when asking his famous question.

Interesting to note,

the One he was addressing,

defining Himself as “I AM”,

also stated to be “Truth”.

With the added ingredient of faith,

for Him to be understood

and for us to understand.

9 August 2020

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