Your Personal Reality

While shopping in my new hometown, I witnessed a teenager behind the wheel of a pickup driving through town, and simply for the joy of berating the elderly, shout profanity at an elderly couple walking the boulevard. I wondered about that young man's personal reality.

All of us, whether we realize it or not, have a philosophy of life—a personal conception of reality. We test our hypothesis of reality each day by how we interact with others. We grow to be a reflection of that reality—it becomes our moral foundation that influences our behavior and forms our character.

But, how did we arrive at our personal reality? Unfortunately, and from a philosophic and pragmatic stance, our pluralistic society has rendered problematic public schooling’s role in defining moral distinctions. So, we can't point to public schooling as a source for our personal reality. Certainly, it would be disastrous to draw morality from mainstream media since such tutoring destroys any semblance of moral conscious. If we point to mainstream media as our source, we must admit that we cannot think for ourselves. Thus, only one source remains: It is you! You have the prevailing and rightful will necessary to ground yourself in any semblance of objective morality that builds personal character.

Have you ever inventoried your personal view of reality?

I’ll finish this post with a dose of fair warning. It takes strength and honesty to inventory your personal reality. Chances are, you will discover a part of yourself that frightens you. You will come to a point where you realize—though you might attempt to ignore it—that your personal truth, in part, is formed on the social and material setting influencing your life. It is at that precise moment that those of faith understand only God offers an independent and objective reality that stands the test of time. Concentrate on that reality. If you do, your personal reality will be the better for it.