Maybe it's like unicorns...

I would like to believe that as we age we become stronger, more experienced and better able to articulate what we want or need, that we're better equipped to know when we need to take and when we can give.  It's a nice fiction.  In many ways we give in or give up, setting aside just those things we want or need in the name of expediency or simplicity.  Sometimes it's not worth the energy or effort or repeating the same old routine.  After all, the devil you know....

So I often wonder- if you pretend or imagine something long enough, does it become true?  Obviously you can't imagine a physical object and have it appear or disappear.  But what about things that are only real within your head.  Can you force yourself to be different just by pretending? If you pretend to be happy do you actually become happy?  If you pretend you don't want something do you really stop wanting it?  It seems like a fool's errand and yet there's a lot to be said for the placebo effect.

Pretending can't make things exist anymore than believing in unicorns makes them flesh-and-blood animals.  (That's an odd saying...leaves out important things like bones.)  But maybe it works for something that isn't "real" in the sense that it is transient and intrinsic, something no one else can touch or see like happiness, sadness, erotic desire, or pride.  Maybe.  But at what point does pretending turn to giving up?  Maybe that's the secret...the point where you give up is the same as the point where it no longer matters whether you're pretending or it's real.  Too bad I have a real hard time quitting or letting go.