"Get Real..." Is it not quite easy to say or do, at first glance? It seems so simple... just get real, dude! However, if we dwell on it, we might see that this statement has innumerable interpretations, several layers of depth... as we go deeper, we find heterogeneous, vivid expositions...
The first thing that strikes me is the question "how would we define reality?" I would turn to science for most of the issues when there is even a grain of doubt in my mind regarding them. Some issues may be "gray", left to the interpretation of the individual. Also, I personally feel that science cannot explain feelings and emotions... YET! It will not be long before scientists actually are able to do that as well... lol... I am heading off along a tangent now! Let's get back to the topic of discussion.
Something that one individual considers to be real may be imaginary to another! There could be two scenarios here.
The former being that the thing or issue is actually imaginary. In this case, it could be due to the fact that the individual may be in desperate exigence of the thing to maintain their sanity or sense of happiness. It could be a matter of misconception of fact that lead them to believe in the issue. It could just be naivety.. and life would make them realise that what they assume is real is just not the way things actually are.
The latter being that the issue is actually real. In this case, it may be nescience... the individual might just not know that such a thing or issue exists for real... they might think that it is just a fragment of imagination. It might be denial, manifested as the obsessive need to ignore the issue and remain ignorant about it. It could be that the individual does not understand or feel the actual issue and hence, might categorize it as being chimerical. There could be a multitude of reasons!
One other dimension of the statement could be the fact that sometimes "getting real" is not the best thing. Escape from reality... something I am fond of doing occasionally, as I guess most of us do! Flight or fight, as psychology says, is the normal human reaction to most unfavorable situations. When we cannot fight it, we just fly away from it. Of course, we eventually have to fight the demon and vanquish it... lol... but a brief stint into the realm of fantasy might just be helpful. Well, if we do not "get real", life has its own bitter-sweet way of kicking us in a place that hurts and say, "Get out of your dreams and imaginations... Get Real!"
On a lighter note, for us computer scientists and mathematicians, I just thought of a banter between "i" and "pi"...
