Perception

You're lounging by the beach on a beautiful sunny day. That grand ship gracefully sailing by near the horizon heralds highborn affluence, luxury, success, and festive recognition. But inside that ship, below deck, what is really going on? What does it really take to keep that ship cruising? What are its inner workings, and what is life below deck really like?

By the same measure, a man's life can appear on the surface, from the outside, as a beacon of success; but in reality the actual living of it could be fierce and brutal, void of an underlying sense of direction, achievement, or any nobility—scrambling, insecure, and fraught with peril at every turn. Certainly it can bely any real comfort or ultimate satisfaction, surrounded as it may be by intrigue, deception, or even downright incompetence. The bottom line may even waver with a vague absence of purpose, justification, or, perhaps worse, enlightenment.

Reality? Maybe. But whose?