When the Imaginary Becomes Reality

Currently where I am working, there happens to be an actor from All My Children, a soap opera on day time television, enjoying a stay. I was talking to a co-worker about the acting he does and the impact that it has on his family. Do the intimate scenes bother his wife? Is it odd for his children when he holds another little girl/boy in his arms? When he says I love you to someone on the show without meaning it, does his family know that when he says it to them that he does mean it? I wonder if it affects them at all, or if they even watch the episodes together as a family.

I've often heard the phrase, 'fake it till you make it', and I find myself decently fond of this phrase. I think that many times that this is how people are able to force themselves into liking something. Like acquired taste, you have to work on the acquiring in order to enjoy the taste of the food or drink. But at what point does what we are pretending to be doing become something that is normal, and a reality? I find this interesting, because I cannot tell when the imaginary process becomes a truth. Often times I find that when I began to be pretend 'best friends' with someone, at some point, they actually become my best friend, and i'm theirs, but I don't know when it happens.

I feel as though its an unexpected process. If you were pretending to be in a relationship (whether it be for on the tele or just for fun) it would creep in, and one day you're sitting across from the person, looking at them realizing that you're slightly jealous of the person sitting next to them. That is when it occurs to you, that you have true feelings for this person and you find that you really want to be with them. It happens so sudden, and before you know it, like the ocean you are in deeper than you actually thought you were and the beach is no longer a few steps away.

How does this actor balance the love he have with his television wife, and his real wife? How can we swim back to shore, before we make life altering decisions to have this new pretend life we have the new reality? Or should we go deeper into the ocean and make a new reality? Either way, there may be regrets for not making the other choice.