Reality

Have you ever considered ‘reality’ to be whatever is filtered through your perceptions?

We ignore so much. We have to—it’s the only way we could make sense and sort out all the sensory input we get. Rocks are hard for us. Water is liquid for us. But how liquid is water for an insect, like a water strider?

Surface tension makes war hard for the water-strider. To a diver, surface tension makes water hard, but only for a moment (and, also depending the angle at which the diver approaches the water). To someone stepping into a tub of water, surface tension is practically non-existent.

For each of these creatures, the reality of whether water seems solid is subjective. (and not at all objective). And it’s subject to which creature is contacting the water at the time.

This may seem like an extreme example, but when you consider it more deeply, this is true for all your interactions with reality. For example, how you consider both the past and the future is very subjective. Both are figments of your imagination (in the most literal sense—you’re making them both up), and so subject to how you interpret them.