Illusions

[AchtungNight]

IMO Alanis Morrisette said it best:

You'll rescue me right?
In the exact same way they never did..
I'll be happy right?
When your healing powers kick in

You'll complete me right?
Then my life can finally begin
I'll be worthy right?
Only when you realize the gem I am?

But this won't work now the way it once did
And I won't keep it up even though I would love to
Once I know who I'm not then I'll know who I am
But I know I won't keep on playing the victim

These precious illusions in my head did not let me down
When I was defenseless
And parting with them is like parting with invisible best friends

This ring will help me yet as will you knight in shining armor
This pill will help me yet as will these boys gone through like water

But this won't work as well as the way it once did
Cuz I want to decide between survival and bliss
And though I know who I'm not I still don't know who I am
But I know I won't keep on playing the victim

These precious illusions in my head did not let me down when I was a kid
And parting with them is like parting with a childhood best friend

I've spent so long firmly looking outside me
I've spent so much time living in survival mode

This won't work now the way it once did
Cuz I want to deside between servival and bliss
Now I know who I'm not
I don't I still don't know who I am
But I know I won't keep on playing the victom

These precious illusions in my head did not let me down
When I was defenseless
And parting with them is like parting with invisible best friends

These precious illusions in my head did not let me down
When I was a kid
And parting with them is like parting with childhood best friends

- "Precious Illusions" from the Alanis album "Under Rug Swept."

 

[Nirvanadragones]

It's human nature. It's what we do when honesty and reality is too much to deal with. It's a state of denial. We even motivate it. . . tell our children about the stork that brought them . . . the toothfaerie, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny . . . and if you look into different cultures, there are similar "traditional ideas" all across the world.

And it's "perfectly acceptable" for us to share that with children, as long as they grow up at some stage and know it was only a story, right?

Illusion is the fairy tales we think we live as adults. Sometimes it carries safety and comfort. I believe it has a place in our lives, as long as it doesn't leave us completely void of reality.

 

[matriarch]

There have been no illusions that haven't been shattered. Abuse survivors are the best at illusions because thats whats keeping them alive and/or relatively whole. We are best at illusions when we fall into love, or into bed. Its the waking up in the morning and washing the sheets that destroy the illusion of that perfect moment.

The biggest illusion of all is the stories we write. All the things we wanted or desired, dreamed of with roses or thorns in our sides, are revealed in the illusionary tales we create.

I think thats one of the reasons the comments are so hard to take in some categories. These people have had their illusions stripped bare and come to read to try and recreate them and when they don't recieve what their illusions demand they are vehemently angry about it. Not saying thats true in all cases... sometimes you just yank some ones chain But our stories are of spinning gossamer thoughts into a solid illusory wall where one can read the graffiti we left behind.


Sometimes its the only way to survive. Sometimes its another way to keep your head in the sand. And sometimes it mines the depths for true gold as they are stripped away, blasted clean, and become in effect our new reality.

When you are in love, and you had that 'perfect moment', waking up to reality -chores, work, bills to pay etc., that perfect moment is still there, still in your memory. It doesn't have to be an illusion. Those are memories to be treasured, when reality becomes overwhelming.

I don't see a real memory, a real perfect moment, as an illusion, but a treasure in the rubble of everyday life.

Illusions are completely different things, the rose tinted glasses things that we all live through when life gets too hard, and we have no jewels to fall back on.

We all have those, it's part of the human condition. Unfortunately, not everyone has the memory of the perfect moment to counteract them. I'm lucky. I do, and I have it every time I see her face.

 

[slyc_willie]

Illusions should never be lost. Without them, we'd never appreciate reality.

It's the same logic that makes us take the good with the bad, the right with the wrong, etc.

Illusions are fantasies of what we have always desired. They should never be discounted, but they should never be relied upon.

They should just be appreciated when they come true . . . for however long it lasts.

It's like being served a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. Enjoy it, savor it, revel in it and hold it close. Just understand that eventually, the comfort turns cold and the pleasure fades, and all we're left with is a delicious memory.

Sometimes, the memory is more potent than the reality.