What’s In A Name?

This world is one of make-believe;
Flip-side of faith if, by your leave,
I could be bold enough to say
’Tis silliness that rules our day.

In realm of faith, placebo reigns –
A sugar pill informs our brains
That help is here, frees up within
Our own resource that we can win.

Reverse of that, our minds will take
Some symptom-set and symptoms make,
Which mimic illness – just to say,
“Hey, smarten up, and change your way”.

Belief is potent in itself;
Resource within affects our health;
In sports, belief shifts loss to win;
In school, a word careers begin.

So, faith’s “reliance on some fact
Which we believe – as base of act”;
But then it shifts, dilutes, portrays
A silly world in younger days –

Like Santa Claus, and Easter eggs,
“A nickel for a tooth” we played;
When we grew up we joined the game –
Each culture does it much the same.

But there are cynics, liars, cheats,
Who play to win through their deceits;
With sleight-of-hand, and confidence,
String us along, slip through defense.

Our leaders play us for a fool:
Say, “All is well”; “Go back to school”;
“There’s lots of jobs” (ten bucks an hour);
“Cash trickles down from those in power”.

Then on the telly, Internet,
There’s games and shows so we'll forget
Our life of grim reality,
Shift hope to win the lottery.

“Suspend belief” in films and games
Is goal of artists in the main;
For story still delights our nights,
Since they were told by firelight.

They say our minds can’t sort it out –
A dream, a film, what truth's about –
A fact-and-faith continuum
That’s intermixed – and so much fun.

“Half-empty or half-full glass?”
It’s full in fact (the truth at last) –
One half is water, half is air,
Which I with truth and faith compare:

For life’s a mix of fact and faith;
It’s full of both – can’t separate;
What you believe won’t change the world –
It changes you amidst the swirl.

But interspersed there’s attitude:
Some folks are cynics, mean, or rude;
Some caring; laugh with gentleness;
Some entertain with their finesse.

Some choose to dominate with myth
Of super-race – with force insist;
While others daily take their cross –
With courage win, despite the cost.

I love this life of mystery –
This mix of fact and faith we see;
How people choose to play the game,
Is essence of each person’s name.

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