Fake Plastic Trees – well, not really. But I do love Radiohead.

When I was a kid, I begged my Dad to build a tree house in our backyard. We bought how to manuals and books on the topic, envisioning a sprawling wooden estate that fit in with our landscape gardens, swing set, shed, and sandbox. Or at least that’s what I envisioned; he may have just been humoring me!

Regardless, my Dad seemed on board with the idea–except for one relentless disagreement: whether or not the tree house would be built into the already existing backyard trees, or would stand on primarily outside wooden legs bought from Home Depot or a similar store.

I, of course, being the little brat I was, insisted on having it sit upon the trees. I didn’t want fake wood steadying my tree house–I wanted the real deal, despite the fact that none of the trees in our yard were positioned or grown properly for this fate.

My Dad explained this numerous times to me, showed me how cool and awesome the artificial houses could be, tried to bribe me with ice cream. Okay, maybe not that last one…which, looking back, probably would have worked! But alas, I never had a tree house and to this day our yard remains empty.

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This got me thinking–what’s the big deal? Why do we sometimes prefer the authentic to the artificial? When and why?

Having a fake pearl necklace would never bother me, but having a fake flower or once upon a time, a fake tree house, would.

So I did what I usually do when I have a perplexing question without an easy answer, and I turn to google.

First I google, “Artificial vs. Authentic,” but I get mostly hits about sea glass (random?). Then I try “When do we prefer what’s real?” I get almost no results pertaining to my question, but every single web page is talking about, musing over, wondering why and how and when and for what purpose things or qualities are real.

“What would a real life Barbie look like?”

“What’s real food to you?”

and my personal favorite…

“Is the Universe a hologram? Should we care?”

People care about terms like real, authentic, genuine.  But when is fake or artificial frankly just better?

Last week, my Dad sent me an e-mail entitled “Amazing Tree Houses.”

I hate to be cliche, but maybe it’s about what you make with what you’re given. Roots or two by two’s–when it comes down to it, they’re both equally likely to give you splinters and equally likely to be imagined into something fantastical. The above is proof.

Tagged as: Authentic, childhood, Real