What is reality? It is a question many of us confront at different moments in our lives. It is shaped by hardship, tempered by growth, and sustained by the fragile hope of a brighter tomorrow.
Reality can be an endless sea—waves crashing over and over again, daring us to push forward. It can also be light: a force capable of warmth and life, or destruction and ruin. Balance is essential. Drift too far to one side and you lose sight of what gives life its true beauty.
But what if the beauty one person sees is ugly to another? How does one reconcile these opposing truths? Duality exists everywhere, yet we rarely question who assigns meaning to these sides in the first place. To be enlightened is to glimpse the truth of the world—but perhaps one person's truth is another's illusion.
If all could see the same truth, would conflict fade? Would hunger disappear, thirst be quenched, and suffering cease? Or is human reason bound to instinct alone—a flame that consumes perpetually until nothing remains, extinguishing itself in the process? There may be beauty in that cycle yet, but what of reason?
If the cycle persists without purpose… Why live? Why die? Why struggle? Why push back against the waves? To what end would you fight for your ideals if it meant destroying the people you love, the world that raised you, or even your very own sense of self?
Every ideal reaches an end, upon the threshold of reason where all meaning dissolves. Perhaps you are meant to be the catalyst that carries those ideals beyond truth and illusion alike, past the waves on the horizon, burying the light of the outer sea, and into the unknown.