The Blackberry Walk

In the virtual, there is no virtue to be found. By virtual, I'm not referring to computers, video games and the internet, but rather the idea of the 'virtual image' - of a Platonic form residing in your mind. The virtual image is what possesses you with thoughts and images of perfection and, by participating in it, we are brought ever closer to it's completion. But are we ever really? The growth is asymptotic; we can never truly reach the form. The word virtue likely has a similar root. The Platonic form of 'the Good' - the idea of perfect morality that man attempts to participate in and strive towards, is a virtual image which drives you to virtue in of itself. But this Platonic notion implies that, like Communism, "true morality has never been tested" - but like true Communism, it can't be tested since it's virtual, imaginal, a dream. What is virtual stands in opposition to what is real. And however much we admire, gaze and lust at the virtual, at the idea, we'll never be able to get in touch with reality, to experience and appreciate the world as it is. The virtual drags you out from reality into a Peter Pan headspace of the boundless child playing in fantasy who never grows up. But you aren't a child anymore. To become an adult and become a successful person in the world living a meaningful life, you have to transcend the divine image that exists within your mind, and say "No, the world is out there, not in here." You must reject the gnawing virtual to discover true virtue which exists in the world, and which isn't asymptotically out of reach. In pursuit of reality, nothing will be wrong. You become content within yourself, since there is nothing which your experience isn't living up to. Getting in touch with reality rids you of the 'grass is greener' attitude towards the virtual image. Otherwise, when the virtual image shines too brightly, you are always destined to reside in its shadow, as it's inferior, wallowing in the darkness. You can never shine bright enough yourself to contend with the greatness of the divine light which emanates from the virtual image. However, virtual images give people great meaning in their lives. The virtual image of the 'Great Man' which you project onto a hero from history whom you admire drives men to great things. Plutarch founded the Renaissance inspired by St. Augustine, for instance, and a similar idea can be found in the arts wherein an artist is infatuatedly inspired by a master from the distant past. But just like how many artists have a 'creative illness', the virtual image can be maddening. You set out on your journey for perfection, but all you see is disappointment and failure since nothing made in our imperfect material world can compare to the beauty of the imagination. Unfortunately, some people are doomed to 'never be enough', to never live up to their expectations and imaginations, since the virtual image shines too brightly for them. They become consumed by its numinous excellency, bedazzled by the jeweled brilliancy of heaven, and spend their lives attempting to build a heaven on earth. But such projects are always doomed to fail. The path to salvation is to learn the beauty of what is - to love the beauty of imperfection in the world and in yourself. It's a change in mindset, fundamentally. The all-consuming divine energy of the virtual image, of the form, of the idea, must be tempered with a good dose of reality. Reality has great beauty in of itself when you open your heart to imperfection. And once you can find beauty in the world, you can find virtue there too. Only once beauty and virtue can be separated from the divine image can you achieve a sense of contentedness and break away from seeing the world as an inferior barren wasteland and instead see it as a place of beauty and virtue.