I struggle with some novels and films that I find unrealistic. Having watched an episode of the Midsomer Murders (1 hour 30 minutes, five murders, one archeological find of the century, one international art theft, one village, one detective), I was prompted to write the following two columns.
| reality | unreality |
| truth | avoidance |
| wholeness, everything, οικουμενην | |
| stories, myths, legends | |
| interesting questions | convenient answers |
| beauty | drugs |
| meaning | nonsense |
| sustenance | junk food |
| the person who I really am | the person I pretend to be |
I’m not sure what to make of these two columns. Is this a fair summary of my outlook ? If so, can we make some constructive criticisms ? The black and white analysis is immediately suspect – as if one were good and the other bad. There is a risk here of closing in on myself and shutting other places and people out. The temptation is to write God on the left hand side. But what does it mean to say that there is a place where God is not ?
TS Eliot writes that
human kind cannot bear very much reality
If so, then maybe instead of attempting to identify, condemn and avoid the right hand column, it would rather be the time to acknowledge and respect it. Maybe we all need a certain amount of time of unreality during our lives as we pursue the path of reality.
