Reality or illusions?

As can be expected, the majority of my search engine hits are from people searching for "two moons on august 27" or some variation of those terms.   I guess a lot of people are finding out for the first time ever that this is not true.  I wonder how many of them will be back looking for this next August?

Oh, and the stuff about this August containing five Sundays, five Mondays, and five Tuesdays, something that happens only once every 823 years?  Yeah, that's not true either.

I've actually had people get angry with me for revealing that the thing about Mars is a hoax.  Would it have been better to let them continue to think that this was really happening, and they just somehow missed it, and all the major news organizations of the world somehow didn't think it was worth knowing?

Is it better to live with our illusions?  Getting robbed has made me think a lot about some things, like the illusions of safety and security.  Getting robbed is, on a microscopic scale, your own personal 9/11 or Katrina.  Not in terms of scope or impact, but in terms of realizing that you were not prepared for this, that there were very simple and obvious things you could have done to prevent this or at least mitigate its effects, that just because something hasn't happened ever before doesn't mean that it can't or won't happen.  And then when you begin to think about it you realize that any precaution can be circumvented, that you can only be prepared for that which you are prepared for, and anything worse can easily overwhelm your defenses.  You know that you can never be completely safe, and that you never were in the past.

I'd rather deal with the real world than dwell in an illusion.  But sometimes that illusionary world is just so much more comfortable.