Look Reality in the Eye and Deny It

"Sometimes you just need to look reality in the eye, and deny it."  ~Garrison Keillor

How can I express how much I LOVE this quote!!!  It's simply brilliant.  Thank you Mr. Keillor for your genius and recognizing how some of us want to live our lives.  It relates perfectly to me because even though I live in a nightmare of reality, I also live in my own little future fantasy world.  And I often feel silly about it with the things I talk about - marrying Jack White, becoming an oscar-winning actress, the next Meryl Streep. But Mr. Garrison Keillor is kind of giving me permission to fantasize away, to "look reality in the eye, and deny it."  I know that it has a much deeper meaning but I'm just scratching the surface right now.


Of course the deeper meaning may be more along the lines of someone who has been paralyzed and reality tells them they'll never walk again but they are determined to not accept that reality and there have been stories where paralyzed people have miraculously walked again.  I met such a person, actually.  A Police Officer shot in the head in the line of duty.  His wife was told if he lived, he would be vegetable, never walk again and brain-dead.  And when I met him, he was far from a vegetable and far from being brain-dead.  He was speaking fine and above all, walking.  WALKING!  After these doctors told his wife and then him that he would never walk again!  He looked reality in the eye, and he denied it.  He said, "You will not take the basics of life from me."  He's an amazing man with an amazing story.  You should check his Facebook page out - Mike Kralicek.  


Where he succeeded is where I have so far failed.  People tell me that my acting career may be over and that I need to rethink a different future.  I have yet to look that reality in the eye and deny it.  I don't want to accept it but I so far have not the strength to deny it and know because what I see in the mirror agrees with what those people tell me.  So instead, I create a fantasy world and a fantasy future for myself where as you all know, Jack White marries me and we live happily ever after and I become the next Meryl Streep and I beat Katherine Hepburn, who still holds the record for winning the most Oscars for Best Actress.  I also beat Meryl Streep for holding the record for Oscar nominations for Best Actress.  And then Jack and I have kids - Isabeau Georgia White if we have a girl and Huck Jack White or Willem Jack White if we have a boy or all of the above if we have three with one girl and two boys!  See, my fantasy world is heavy duty fantasy.  I mean, I go as far as naming our kids!  And I'm not just naming kids to any prince charming I may marry but to a rockstar/songwriter/music producer/actor!!!  And then not only to fantasize about one of the hardest careers to break in to but to be as successful as Mery Streep and Katherine Hepburn!!!  I'm nuts!  


My biggest challenge in relation to that quote is not listening to what people say about not having a career in acting again and not listening to what the mirror says.  To look in the reality that the mirror holds and deny it.  To look in that mirror where reality stares me back in face, look it in the eye and say, "YOU WILL NOT STOP ME!"