Reality

Humankind cannot bear very much reality -- T. S. Eliot

Are our aspirations for our life, ourselves, something which we should try to accomplish -- or are they mostly illusions that have no basis in reality?

We are told it is a good thing to have goals. But then so many of these goals seem unattainable and unreal. So often these goals become illusions. We realize how wrong we are to want them. We have to face up to reality.

Iran. That is a reality that is perhaps as harsh as one would have to face. The people in Iran have no time for illusions. They are steeped in reality. Bloody, awful, deathly -- brutal, reality. It does seem that reality is only that, brutal. Reality isn't often pretty.

That may be why Eliot surmises that we cannot deal with so much reality, because often that reality is so harsh that it saps us of our energy, our will to live, our desire to live, really. Much better to hope for something better, than endure present reality.

----

Of course when I watch beautiful performances like this, my perspective of reality seems not quite so harsh.