Reality is Perception

I’m a Product Manager for a dot com, entrepreneur, new media freak, and lover of wine, boating and gadgets/techy things that affect our daily lifestyles.  I’m especially interested in mobile technology, social media and entrepreneurship topics when I’m spending time reading and researching.

I should probably explain the title of this blog, “Reality is Perception”.

To do so, here’s a short tale:

Growing up, I spent many a night with friends discussing such deeply philosophical topics as the meaning of life, the possibilities of space travel, life migrations from planet to planet, etc.  Never an answer, many a theory, but as with all philosophical conversations, usually left with more questions at the end.

For this particular topic, I was riding in the car with my friends in high school, and we opted to go to Dairy Queen for some tasty, soft-serve ice cream cones.  As usual,  I put a smiley face in my ice cream cone with my tongue and showed it to my then girlfriend.  She laughed and said, “How’d you do that?”

I said, “Do what?”

She said, “Put that line in the middle?”  She was referring to a perfect raised line in the middle of the indented smile and the two eyes I’d drawn.

I was like, “With my tongue, of course.”

“Let me see your tongue.”, she asked.

I stuck out my tongue and she said, “Whoa!  Your tongue is split!”

I said, “Yeah, isn’t yours??”

She said, “Noooo!”, and she stuck out her tongue.  No split!

Right at that moment, something occurred to me.  My whole life I thought everyone had a split tongue.  I never knew any differently.  Apparently, I’d never seen someone else’s tongue and noticed the tip of it enough to realize it wasn’t how I thought it was.  Here I was, thinking that one of the truths about humans is that they have split tongues, and because there was no evidence to support otherwise (that I’d thought to look for), this is how I functioned day-in and day-out, comfortable with the knowledge that everyone’s tongue looked like mine.

Taking that a step (and then many steps) further, how many things have we taken/do we take for granted as truths about human existence and life as we know it simply because there hasn’t been evidence yet to prove otherwise?  How we really understand physics, such as gravity, matter, etc. because of our experience with it and how we test it is all still limited to our current “reality”, or the truths we know about life.

I was probably like this some before that realization, but it has been core to my being since then, that as I experience life, new experiences, new challenges, etc., to ask the question, is this really how it is, or am I just reacting to it inside the confines of the existing “reality” that I live in?  Besides physics and universal “truths” (or some conversations say “mass delusion”), when you start dealing in the realm of emotions, psychology, quantum physics, etc., the differences in the experiences of life are even GREATER in one’s definition of “reality” than another’s.

Hence the name of my blog, “Reality is Perception”.  It all depends on how YOU experience it, how life and experiences occur to you in life.  This blog reflects my perspective on it, and I value incredibly the different perspectives, opinions and experiences of others.

Thanks for visiting and please reply/comment on anything while you’re here and if you’re so inspired!