The Real World
What is the “real world?” And I’m not talking about the MTV show. Where is it? What’s it like? Who lives there? Can I get a map?
The idea of the “real world” gets thrown around in many different arenas: around the time of graduating high school or university, after a vacation, leaving a workshop, retreat or even after a long weekend. Despite its obviously faulty characteristics, we all have a relative sense of what that refers to: work, obligations, bills, things to do, responsibilities, tasks and more. Why is that I wonder? Why does that have to be the “real world”? And why does that stuff necessarily have to be a drag? Since when did we collectively and respectively buy into a notion where the world that’s “real” sucks for most people — or at a minimum the “real world” requires a long sigh and open mouthed exhalation.
The reality of the “real world” is that we have bought into a bunch of bologna that imposes a strange and rather confused concept of what reality is. There is a lot of cool stuff in the “real world” if you ask me. I marvel at human genius and creativity, innovation and technology, art and architecture, history and science, physical accomplishment and spiritual insight. Many of these things in the real world are amazing and exciting. It is pretty cool. So, why does the real world get such a bad rap?
To me, the “real world” is the world I’m in — wherever, however, whenever and with whomever. It’s when I’m on retreat, at work, on vacation, paying bills, in school, taking out the garbage or being bored. To me it’s all the time, all my experiences internal and external. And it’s enough. Totally and completely enough and fulfilling. Not all the time is it fun or enjoyable, but that’s one of the neat parts of the human experience is that we get to have a vast spectrum of experiences. Besides, is what I’m doing fake or phony based on some dreary view of the world. We’ve, for better or worse, created a glum mentality that manifests itself as is. We fuel it and it fuels us.
How do we shift this mentality? Can we? Is it worth it? Do we have to be addicted to crafting the banality of real?
Our “real world” is a collection of all the choices we have made to bring us into the present moment — not because we “have to,” “must,” or “ought to,” but because we have chosen our path. By stepping out of a victim consciousness, passive person mentality, we can open into the place of empowered and sovereign living.
In the quantum mechanical universe, everything is sheer potentiality and it is our awareness that manifests that potentiality into being. We play an active role in grabbing our reality, so why not charge one of the potentialities that is going to make our “real world” incredibly awesome?
In order to re-shape our “real world,” we have to realize that we must generate new definitions, new habits (mentally and physically) and new real-isms. This way when we say “real world” everyone smiles, laughs, pumps their fists and looks forward to it. So, onward we march into the realest of the real. Tally-ho!
