Shared Realities

We all experience reality differently.  Each living organism on earth has a different understanding of reality, whether it be through the sonar abilities of dolphins, plant photosynthesis, or the extrasensory detection of pollen that bees are capable of.  As humans, we’ve developed efficient ways to easily respond and react to the wide variety of data presented to us via convenient shortcuts.  Essentially, a large part of our conscious reality comes from our ability to comprehend the past and use categorical information to determine our present.  Our world comes alive in the interactions between these individual realities.  The following is a haiku highlighting the brilliance of our shared realities and a throwback to one of my favorite books, 1984, by George Orwell.

​2 + 2 is 4
But what if we all agreed
2 + 2 is 5?