What Is Real?

The morning is clear and blue, and the forecast says upper eighties today. Volunteering with the food pantry is one small way I give back to the church. Another way is by reading to the assembly. A third is by playing with the choir. Although a lot of my life has been lived in my imagination, a few of my deeds have been real. Nowadays the distinction between reality and imagination has become blurred, what with social media and other cyber activities. I had two therapists who denied the substantiality of Internet relationships. They asserted that these were unreal. I think I disagree, having experienced them myself. Both of these therapists were older than me and possibly less adaptable. They could be swayed by watching a movie but maybe not by tapping or typing. I found my way to social media by means of desktop computers. It started with a rock star’s online guestbook in December 2010. That was where I met the woman in Scotland. From there I became a volunteer proofreader for Gutenberg for a couple of years, and then started my blog three years ago. All this from a desktop computer with a slow connection! I never owned a smartphone until last April. Imagine me typing on an old Dell quiet key keyboard amid the smoldering ruins of my house, with an Internet connection hanging by a thread. That’s sort of how it’s been. But do we say that all that was unreal? I don’t think so…