{"id":9252,"date":"2015-02-09T05:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellejolin.com\/wordpress\/?p=9252"},"modified":"2015-02-08T20:47:06","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T04:47:06","slug":"reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9252","title":{"rendered":"Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe all live in a kind of continuous dream,\u201d I told him. \u201cWhen we wake, it is because something, some event, some pinprick even, disturbs the edges of what we\u2019ve taken as reality.\u201d
\n–Jeff Vandermeer\/Annihilation<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The other morning I woke up to the sound of a doorbell. I looked at the clock, fuzzy-brained, and it was too early for it to be a friend to be at the door. I considered going to the door to see, but I knew that by the time I put clothes on and went out to see if anyone was there whoever it might have been would be gone. I snuggled back under the covers and wondered if I had dreamt it or if it was real.<\/p>\n

Then I wondered what I had<\/em> been dreaming.<\/p>\n

Either way, it was real enough to have woken me up.<\/p>\n

Reality is in the eye of the..what would you call it? The beholder? Considerer? Imaginer? Is anything that triggers your brain to hear it, smell it, taste it, see it real?<\/p>\n

I’ve hallucinated demons. It felt like they were really there. My body responded as if they were real. I’ve had a telepathic conversation in French with a black Lab. That was very real to me, as real as his two owners who were standing there with him. I’ve heard leaves talking to me, and melted into a stair rail. I’ve had sex with angels and human beings which definitely felt real. <\/p>\n

Real?<\/p>\n

What is?<\/p>\n

Are feelings real, or only things?<\/p>\n

How do you really know if anything is real given how convincing a hallucination or dream can be?<\/p>\n

I wonder if I watched one too many TED Talks about Neuroscience this weekend?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe all live in a kind of continuous dream,\u201d I told him. \u201cWhen we wake, it is because something, some event, some pinprick even, disturbs the edges of what we\u2019ve taken as reality.\u201d –Jeff Vandermeer\/Annihilation The other morning I woke up to the sound of a doorbell. I looked at the clock, fuzzy-brained, and it … Continue reading Reality<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2470-0.jpg?fit=341%2C391&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7lr3R-reality","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9696,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9696","url_meta":{"origin":9252,"position":0},"title":"Beer tattoo 3","author":"Michelle","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The door slammed open, shattering the glass in the window next to it. She tore at the vine around her neck, \u00a0trying to stand up. Trying to reach the knives on the counter to cut it away. As she formed the thought, before she formed the thought, the knives flew\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fiction"","block_context":{"text":"Fiction","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1141,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=1141","url_meta":{"origin":9252,"position":1},"title":"Time in motion","author":"Michelle","date":"August 28, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"All round the day was going down slow Night like a river beginning to flow I felt the beat of my mind go Drifting into time passages Years go falling in the fading light --Al Stewart\/Time Passages Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth You pull on your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130826-164624.jpg?fit=768%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130826-164624.jpg?fit=768%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130826-164624.jpg?fit=768%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/20130826-164624.jpg?fit=768%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3106,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=3106","url_meta":{"origin":9252,"position":2},"title":"Free the birds","author":"Michelle","date":"December 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The birds were all dead. Or dying. It must have been her fault for not feeding them, but how could there be so many dead after only a day? She tried to think. Hadn't she put seed and water in the cages just yesterday? She was sure she had. She\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11531,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=11531","url_meta":{"origin":9252,"position":3},"title":"Periodic review of life\u2019s blessings","author":"Michelle","date":"April 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"There's been so much personal turmoil and work drama in my life in the last several months that I have been full of all sorts of strange, turbulent feelings. Fear and anxiety were taking the lead in a way that is strange for me. I'm always optimistic about life in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4908,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=4908","url_meta":{"origin":9252,"position":4},"title":"How do you ruin karma?","author":"Michelle","date":"April 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There is a hotel up the street from work that plants palm trees outside the building each Spring. Each Winter, they wrap the trees in insulation so they don't die. Each Spring, they unwrap the dead trees and replace them with new ones. Portland, Oregon is not exactly a tropical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/20140409-165113.jpg?fit=225%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8276,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=8276","url_meta":{"origin":9252,"position":5},"title":"Samael and the hell hound","author":"Michelle","date":"March 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \"But do you love me?\" asked Mara.\u00a0 \u00a0\"I do not understand the human idea of love,\" Samael replied. \u00a0\"I love all of humanity. You are my own. My treasure.\"\u00a0 Mara sighed, then smiled. Angels were apparently no better about answering simple questions than human men, but she had definitely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2470-0.jpg?fit=341%2C391&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}