Real or Not Real?

We've all heard that obnoxious phrase: perception is reality.

But, who decided that?

And how something is perceived cannot change the very nature of the thing itself.

For example, we all saw the story about that crazy woman, Rachel Dolezal. She perceived herself to be black; she "identified" as black. But, she was obviously a white woman - just with a perm and a really bad tan. Her perception of herself never changed the reality. The very nature of who and what she was has remained the same.

Another example - and this one is going to get me into some real trouble - is the transgender and gender identity movements. You can perceive that you are gender fluid, gender-neutral, or whatever gender you want to choose to be. You can even go so far as to alter your appearance so that other people perceive you in the way that you choose. You can claim that you were born a man but are really a woman - and vice versa, since I'm inclusive here. But, that will never change your biological reality. Your genetic code will never change. As a transgender, when you get blood drawn, you will genetically present as a man (XY chromosomes) with high levels of estrogen or as a woman (XX chromosomes) with high levels of testosterone. You cannot alter your genetics - unless you want to risk turning into the Incredible Hulk. (But, in that case, be my guest.)

I'm sick of people telling me that whatever people think is the truth has become the truth.

That's ridiculous.

And I won't stand for it.

Because making these "identity" and "perception" claims sounds as asinine to me as I would to you if I claimed that I could reach Narnia from the back of some closet somewhere.

My perception of the world could be that Narnia exists at the back of a closet or wardrobe and that I just haven't found the right one yet. But, when I do, believe me - I'll be in Narnia. And I could keep checking every single closet or armoire or wardrobe or hutch that I come across, trying to transport myself into the magical world of Narnia - a place with talking animals, witches, kings and princes, and creatures of legend.

You would want to put me into a mental institution for the safety of myself and of others. Because we all know that Narnia isn't real and that I will not get there through the back of a closet. All I'll be doing is walking into closets, mumbling about centaurs and lions.

You would think that I was a crazy person.

But, if perception is reality and if my perception is that I can reach Narnia through the back of some closet somewhere, why hasn't that been accepted as truth?

If you can make up whatever truth that you want to and I have to accept it as truth, why isn't my perception truth?

If my truth makes me certifiably insane, why doesn't yours make you the same?

How is that fair?

I don't want to sound hateful or mean, but we have to stop operating on the basis of a false premise. When you're starting point is wrong, you're ending point will be wrong.

This is how we ended up with accepting transgender - the perception that we can choose our own genders. This is how we ended up with homosexuality - the perception that all love should be accepted. This is how we ended up with abortion - the perception that a life is not a life until it is outside the womb, that because a fetus is inside a woman's body it is the woman's body.

If hearing that your perception of these issues is not reality makes you angry, let's talk about some that we can all unite on.

Operating on the idea that you can make something true just by seeing it that way is how we ended up with racism and slavery, misogyny, and a host of other dividing issues.

People believing that they are better than another race caused a blight on our national history and a disease that continues to plague us. Maybe Hitler and the Holocaust never would have happened. Maybe Apartheid and the injustice for Nelson Mandela would never have been as bad.

Men believing that women weren't as smart or capable as men caused years of oppression and neglect. Who knows what the women of the past could have accomplished if they hadn't been told that their job was to cook and clean, if they hadn't been told that they weren't as smart as their fathers and sons and brothers. We may have had the cure for cancer; we may have had more women role models because they would have been able to take credit for their work instead of having a man steal it from them.

Perception is based purely on emotion. It is selfish and exclusionary. It only sees from one point of view with the rejection of all others.

Reality is truth. And while error is plural, truth is singular. There may be an infinite number of ways for a dry erase marker to fall over, but there is only one way for it to stand up.

And that is simply a reality.

In our pluralistic and tolerant society, I understand that this is not popular. People don't want to be told that they are wrong. But, newsflash, they have never wanted to be told that they are wrong.

But, what I don't understand is why people would choose to live in their ignorance instead of letting themselves learn and grow.

My perception is that facts are important. Sadly, that's not the reality of the world anymore; nobody else seems to care about what is real or not real.