The term that President Trump will long be remembered for is “fake news.” Ironically, the news is not the only thing that has grown to be fake in our lives. Over the course of our nation’s history and especially in recent years, there is very little that does not have a sense of “fakeness” about it. We started out with fake material and tangible things in our lives, but have now moved on to fake intangible aspects of life.
We have fake nature looking things. We have artificial house plants and astro-turf for football fields. We have laminate floors for our homes that appear to be hardwood floors. We have veneer over pressboard that makes up most of the furniture on the market. We have sound machines to sleep by that leads us to believe we are at the ocean. We have candles and essential oils that simulate flowers.
We have fake food. A true vegetarian can eat like a carnivore because of all the varieties of veggie burgers. “I can’t believe it’s not butter” will make you believe that it is. Cauliflower can be made to “fake” any white potato dish.
Now we have fake relationships. We can load ourselves with friends on Facebook. The pandemic has led us to constantly do business with Zoom. I even know people who have dated and ultimately married via cyberspace.
When I was a child, I remember my grandmother having a bowl of plastic fruit on her table. It looked like beautiful real fruit and lasted forever – but had no taste or nourishment of the real fruit. Like this plastic fruit, we have let much of life become fake. We have given in to appearances that look real, but actually are not and give us nothing but appearance.
Real life takes more time, more effort, and may cost more than fake living. But ultimately we will pay the price for sufficing for the fake – just like we would by trying to eat a piece of that plastic fruit.
