How Do You Know if You Are Real?

When I was in high school, I worked at the Deseret Book Distribution Center.  I loved that job.  I would spend most of my time doing what we called picking and packing.  Picking was taking an invoice and going around to the locations of the books and putting the books the customer (usually a big store, so orders were often very large) had ordered on a cart.  Packing was taking the cart someone had picked and packing the books into boxes and sending them over the conveyor belt to the shippers.  (That was back in the dark ages.  I've been there since and they have a totally automated system that takes all the fun out of it....)

On the invoices, they had a limited amount of room.  Most book titles fit just fine on the line.  But some of the books with longer titles would get the title cut off.  When the data entry people realized it wouldn't all fit, they would leave a space between the last letter they were including and the edge of the invoice.  That was standard procedure.

One day, I was picking an order and found a book on the invoice that I was DYING to see.  The title read, "How Do You Know if You Are Real."  The last letter was the 'l' of real and it went right up to the edge of the invoice- no space.  I could not get to the location for that book fast enough.  I kept thinking, "What is this book about?"  I mean honestly, how much can you say about that?  You are real if you are breathing?  You are real if you are reading this?  I brainstormed all the possible chapter titles, determined to buy the book and read it just to figure out how someone had gotten an entire book on this topic AND managed to get it published.

I was so disappointed.  The full title of the book was How Do You Know if You Are Really in Love?  It hadn't followed the standard procedure of leaving a space at the end before the invoice ended.  (And no, I didn't buy the book in the end. I was too disappointed...  :D)

But the rest of the night (and quite a few times since then, actually) I brainstormed.  What would I write if I were to write a book titled How Do You Know if You Are Real?  For awhile I was determined to do it.  (I didn't.)  I thought I'd include some thoughts I had come up with about how to know if you are a real person. :)

First, if you are real (being used the same way as the word genuine...) it means you are not fake.  (Yes, I understand how stupid that sounds.)  You act who you really are.  You do not change your behavior to match what you think someone wants.  In other words, you show integrity.  You are who you really are.  How much happier we would all be if we could do this 100% of the time. I know for me personally, it would me far fewer 'Flight of the Bumblebee' cleanings (you know, the running around panicked trying to straighten up because you found out someone was coming over in two minutes).  If I could just be who I really am at all times, it would mean I wouldn't be mortified that my house is usually cluttered- just because my friends seem to keep their houses spotless...

Second, if you are real, it means you believe in something.  How can you be a real person and not believe in anything?  For me it's my religion.  I would hope that everyone believes in God.  But even if that isn't what you believe in, you need to believe in something.  We all need that guiding force in our lives to direct us and give us purpose.  (Hopefully something good...) Otherwise what kind of mundane existence do we lead?  I need the focus of knowing God lives and that He loves me and wants me to live with Him again.  If I don't have that, I would just flounder around.  Life would have no purpose, and as a result, there would be no point living it.  It would be just as well to die immediately as it would to go on living it.

Third, if you are real, it means you serve.  How many of us have seen a very selfish, self-serving person and wondered how they could live with themselves?  I know in my life, it's always been characters in movies.  I've never actually met a person in real life (thank heavens!) that I've thought this about.  But think of a person (whether real or fictional) who only cares about himself?  Who spends all day and all night doing things to make only HIM happy.  Who has money but only spends it on himself.  Who ignores anyone else's feelings?  Does this person seem real?  No.  Now think of a person who spends his time servings others, making others happy.  That person gives of himself.  Now that is a REAL person.

Fourth, which is actually a continuation of third, if you are real it means you leave a positive stamp on others you interact with.  We are only real people if we can lift those around us.  The scriptures say it this way, "Lift up the hands that hang down and strengthen feeble knees."  (Paraphrased, of course.)  We have a perfect example of a real person in Jesus Christ.  Everything He did in His life was to leave a positive stamp on others.  He fed the hungry, comforted the sad, visited the sick, and spread the good word of the gospel to all who would listen.  That is the definition of a real person.

So those are my thoughts about what it means to be a real person.  How much better would it be if everyone in the world did their best to be real?  How much happier could we all be?  But even if the dream of utopia never arises, how much happier can we be if we do our best to be real and surround ourselves with real people?  Just a thought.