Fascination
“....I use these real eyes to realise the real lies been spoken and not heard, cause we are more fascinated by that which are fabricated....”
Last year, a good friend of mine told me to look up on YouTube this segment called ‘Def Poetry Jam.’ Def Poetry Jam is a TV show in which, established spoken word poets come out and present their original pieces to an audience. One poem, “Flashy Words” by Shihan van Clief, really made me think about the world we live in.
In particular, the line mentioned above, I believed was true on so many different levels. Most individuals in society prefer to remain oblivious to many things happening around them, believing that their world would be better off not acknowledging issues going on at that present time. Believing the lie makes life easier to live in.
For the moment maybe, but in reality the issue will never truly disappear unless you face it head on and try to fix the problem at hand. You see it happening in relationships, at work, between friends, in the past between different groups in society as well as in the media today.
If you look specifically at the media in our society and their goss on celebrities, many times you wonder if what the press is saying is really correct. It is more entertaining for us to hear that the celebrity in question was eating lots of junk because their marriage was on the rocks than simply because they were craving junk food like any normal human being. Taking into account the obvious reason why they do it, for entertainment, has our society become less savage by wanting to read and “hear” lies coming from the media?
This also reminded me of an excerpt from “Pen and Paper and a Breath of Air” by Mary Oliver: ‘The sugar of vanity, the honey of truth.’ This is itself presents something quite pure and beautiful, that being honest is sweeter and more natural than sugar which is synthetic and holds no value compared to honey. We can relate this back to Shihan van Clief and hopefully realise that honesty really is the best policy, and re-think this the next time we make a lie.... are we doing it because we would really be better off with the lie or simply to entertain or protect ourselves from pain? Is it worth it? You be the judge.