Friday, August 19, 2005

Fantasy, reality, and more links

Yesterday Special K really wanted to go the park outside the library and play. She called it "doing a show". She jumped from one metal lilypad to another. Metal sculptures from Wind In The Willows stand outside the library including a pond. I watched for a while, then Little T started to get bored and fuss. So I told Special K we had to go unless she could entertain him. So she started to talk to him and he watched her for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile a lady sat near us talking into thin air. Now sometimes when people do this, they're actually talking to a real invisible person on a cell phone. She had long black hair, so at first I wasn't sure. Then I saw she wasn't wearing a headpiece. I entertained the idea she was talking to a real invisible person who was actually there. Then I noticed that there were no gaps in her conversation for another person to talk. She kept up a running monologue for a good 20 minutes. I didn't exactly eavesdrop, but she was very emphatic about the UN and some sort of plan she was explaining. She held up a spiral bound notebook literally full of scribbles, not writing, but curling scribbles like writing is shown in comics. She was reasonably dressed in jeans and a shirt. She didn't smell and she spoke very earnestly. She must feel terribly important. I feel terribly important to my immediate family, but not to the UN. I wonder whether she feels her imaginary life is better.

Interestingly Special K utterly ignored her. Usually she comments on unusual people and they talk to me or her about her comments. Perhaps she sensed this woman's utter self-absorption.

I just saw "The Purple Rose of Cairo" last night in which the real and imaginary are juxtaposed. And the night before I saw "Bridget Jones: Beyond the Edge of Reason". The director describes Bridget Jones as "a fantasist". She's also a pessimist. I'm definitely an optimist, and a realist. I always hope people will behave their best and things will turn out fine in the end, but I do tend to see things as they are, not as I want them to be. However I enjoyed Bridget Jones and found Purple Rose quite depressing. The characters in the former change for the better while those in the latter never do. And I do believe people can and do change for the better. Not always, but it's possible. I have in some ways.

And here are two somewhat related links:

From Tritone's LJ, Spot the Fake smile - I got 19 out of 20 right, because I knew what to look for. So that at least provides a credential for my statement that I'm a realist.

From a link from Zed's blog, Drug Dealers vs. Coders. - This made me smile. And drugs and code can create a fantasy world for the user.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I chose wrong on some of the smiles because I was trying to be less cynical, so I said a number of them were real, when, in fact, they were fake.

sigh.

I wonder if she feels her imaginary life is better
I've wondered the same thing in other situations. For example, I'm extraordinarily grateful that I'm not schizophrenic and can trust that what I perceive is "real." But perhaps there are schizophrenics who abhor the thought of living with depression and wouldn't trade places with me for love or money.

Hmmm, many more thoughts tumble after that one. I think I'll try to squish them into some sort of coherent post in my own journal.