The Great Realness Shift of 2020

Hello. How goes it? I’m here again. But I’ve got to ask, do you feel that too? The world’s tectonic plate has move in a way that signals no going back. It’s as if a great steel door has locked behind us, never allowing passage again. No release button, no remote way to release the latch. We’ve gone through a door we cannot go through again, and yet we continue to live in a world of setback after setback.

The world’s anger is palpable these days. Not that it wasn’t before, but the shift has changed us all. The fault that opened revealed the nastiest of the nastiest among us. The inside-out thinking has become an echoed voice in the national conversation. We’re expected to care about literally every news story that crosses the wires, except if those in power say you’re not caring about it in the right way. You can’t focus on one subject, you have to care about the whiniest among us’s subject first.

It’s safe to say, life, lately, is one big mess. But perhaps it won’t be for long.

Something has shifted. The way we live life has shifted. The way we present the news has shifted. Seasons are beginning earlier than they were supposed to. Life not only changed, it overhauled. The change was foisted upon us because when you fight an enemy like a virus, the danger isn’t visible, and your precautions are what will bring you into the next day. The pandemic put everyone on earth into the same boat, and those who always sat comfortably in their reverberation chambers were forced to hear opinions and thoughts that didn’t vibe with their own. It was like that before we cloistered in our own homes, but was heightened as the boredom and constant search for the ‘correct’ information became commonplace in daily life. And, unfortunately for some, dealing with change and seeing the inevitable coming isn’t always an easy pill to swallow.

And so what happens? Anger. Frustration. Believing someone’s differences makes them a bad person rather than someone who is just that: different. The lava is flowing. We’re past the stage of eruption and the volcanic ash has the potential to bury us all. Our anger, our thirst for justice and righteousness is entirely misplaced. We haven’t caught up to the shift yet. We’d rather try to rewind history, using duct tape and our tears to stitch the fault back together and live how we were living before all this nonsense broke us.

And yet, and yet…

I have to believe this is the final gasp of air being taken by the Evil. The force that stands to drive us apart by any means necessary. Something wants us divided, soured, angry, closed off, and hopeless. It’s not attributable to any one person. But there’s something malevolent looking to drive a wedge through life as we know it. Coincidence is one thing, but not in the face of spotting signs and feeling things falling into place. Evil is on its last legs. If we’re smart enough, we’ll let it wither without collapsing in spectacular fashion, which could stand to bring even more trouble than its worth.

And to defeat it, we’ve got to let the Real reign supreme.

Here on the internet, we’re all heightened versions of ourselves. The anonymity allows us to say things we don’t normally say in our daily lives. Here, we’re given credence to clap back and snark at what’s deemed unpopular, and passes to praise and follow the popular without question. I used to think this was phoniness, but it’s not. It’s just the version of yourself you choose to show. Realness permeates. Repetition dies when the echo does.

We’re tired of hearing the same tried and tired phrases from politicians, whose calls for unity are just veils for their divisive tactics. We don’t need celebrities, both Hollywood and Obscure Blue Twitter Checkmarks being angry at any and all moves made by this Administration. We don’t need the news media to gaslight and force us into believing they have all the answers about what’s really going on. The Realest among us moved with the shift. They didn’t shy away, they rolled with the change, and saw any hardship or setback as a challenge to overcome, not a barrier with no way around. And what many have failed to realize is the Real will not just kick you off the wall if they see you trying to climb over. If anything, they’ll give you a helping hand, if you can of course prove your Realness in one way or another.

Insincerity is losing. It’s not benefiting anyone. Our eyes are far too open to put up with it anymore. We’re approaching something that’s going to keep this shift permanent, but more importantly, irreplaceable. As if the bar will forever be raised once we see the thing that people can’t help but react to with everything Real that lies within them.

And if you’ve discovered there’s people who want to leave you, let them. You don’t need to put up with that kind of bull-shift.