Illusions: An Analysis

Infatuation is when you think that he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Conners. Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Conners, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger, and nothing like Robert Redford--but you'll take him anyway!! - Judith Viorst

Life is like a desert. To live is to survive the burning mornings and freezing nights. To live, is to secure a shelter in the scary open and to live is to believe in company while walking in the valley of wolfs.
Life resembles desert in many ways. Scarcity is one way. Illusions are another.
Unlike desert, illusions in life take many forms. While in desert, we have only the visual illusion which is a phenomenon that can easily be explained by physics. In life we have a phenomenal number of illusions that can never be related to physics.
As we strive for water in desert, we strive for security in life, security that comes in different forms and on different levels. Food, shelter and basic needs can be the perfect definition of security for some of us. A reputable career, a stylish car and a mountain of money could be the best definition for others. Love, family and safe company could be the optimum mix for the rest. Security could be a mix of everything and anything, but it is generally more of the resources the one think can help him survive through the desert called life.
Without getting too much into physics, visual illusion is simply a problem with perception. The reflection of sun light on sand gives the impression of water. And as water is the thing we struggle for in desert, we always forget that simple fact and follow our misleading perception.
Though unrelated to physics, other illusions basically follow that very simple logic. Illusions are just a perception problem; it is our personal perception of things that mislead us. It is our readiness to follow the illusion that takes us to middle of no where. It is our willingness to believe that these reflections are real water that leads us to the end.
We fall for illusions for different reasons, depending on the mix of security we seek, we fall for illusions to ease pain, to skip reality and sometimes because there is nothing else to believe. As the best thing about illusions is that they are always tempting and always pleasant, but unfortunately they always lead to middle of nowhere.
In desert, you risk your life following an illusion. You waste precious time hunting what can’t be hunted. You follow reflections instead of real water you seek, in life things work some how the same way. You get attracted to an illusion seeking what can’t be sought.
Illusions are a mirror where every thing looks beautiful. It twists reality to look as we deeply wish, in that mirror a witch will be an angel falling from heaven and a monster will act as prince charming. Illusions are the hard way to learn our lessons as it always comes at the high price of opportunity cost.
Anger, boredom and loneliness are all reflecting surfaces causing illusions. Anger, boredom and loneliness deflect the human mind towards emotional traps.
Love is one of these traps, or in actual terms imitations of love are the most famous of traps and the most known of illusions.
Real love is as scarce as diamonds, and mostly mistaken with rocks, while illusionary love is as shiny as glass but it worth as much as it.
In the quest for real diamonds, real love, we fall for many similar rocks. Lust, admiration, appreciation, like and love at first sight all shines but shininess of no value. Although each of them is based on a certain emotion, that can never be neglected but such emotions can never be compared to love.
Walking down the sighs valley, following a mirage of non existing water, shining loneliness will make some semi precious stones shines with reflections. A pure physical attraction will then be mistaken as love instead of calling it lust. Boredom will make a pure charcoal so promising of turning into a diamond so soon, the same way instant likeness is called by some, “love at first sight”. Anger is an exaggerating set of rays that will make an enemy of a friend and a lover of someone we just like.
Walking down the sighs valley, following the mirage of non existing solutions, we jump to love as the answer for each single question we ever had.
We just keep missing the real stone as the real stone is usually beneath the shiny semi precious feelings we fall for. We fall for these semi precious rocks as the real worthy one needs work to be earned. To get a diamond you need to dig for it, clean it, shape it and then give it to the one who deserve it. Love is earned through hard work, persistence and patience. Love needs to be handled with care and delivered to those who have waited anxiously for it to develop. Love isn’t a ready made fake jewelry, it is a tailored to taste custom designed art. Love is so precious that it is not commonly traded. Love is a set of rays not a reflecting surface. Love is the opportunity we waste, while running down the sighs valley hunting shiny illusions the same way a butterfly persistently hunt a fire looking for the shininess of light and facing nothing but burning to death.

Picture: Fractal by Pablo Picasso