Magical Realism

Be realistic.

This is often followed by sentiments like: Enough with the pipe dreams, with “follow your dreams,” with fantasy.

Be realistic. It connotes a demand to abandon fancy, to come down to earth, to stop being naïve. To be realistic, we tell one another by our tone, is to abandon fun, and even hope. Be realistic is a shorthand for life is hard. Or at least that’s how I’ve heard it.

And because that’s how I’ve heard it, being realistic sounds like the last thing I’d ever want to be. If to be realistic is to subsume ambition and desire underneath the sodden blanket of eeking out a life, then screw realism. If to be realistic is to hear that “real life” is something sharp and bruising, then it’s no wonder people including myself have avoided the reality of life. Better to have eyes in the sky and accidentally fall into pits, than to look down, and know that all of life is littered with pits.

But.

Realism gets a bad rap. Realism seems to sound like what Peter Pan was actively eschewing with his Lost Boys. But, there’s a reason they were lost: they weren’t looking at the ground either.

So, where is realism a positive? And can we change the idea and the stigma of reality?

There are pits. Si. Oui. Hei. and Yes. Plenty and abundant pits in which to bust an elbow, break a leg, and sink despairingly like a zebra in quicksand.

But reality offers us the chance to be aware of them. To avoid them if we can. Yet, if we fall in one--despite our diligence and through no fault of our own--if we are in realism, we can recognize the tools we have around us to get out of the pit.

If my eyes are focused in reality, in groundedness, in fact, then they’re also focused toward opportunity. I can’t see the stepping stones through the swamp if I’m looking at the trees.

(Fun to notice that my exposition on the advantages of realism are based solely in the fantasy of metaphor!)

Realism has its pitfalls. Realism isn’t as fun as discerning animal shapes out of clouds. But realism gets you to the solid ground that enables you to look up and do so.