Reality is an invention - Joel-Peter Witkin

The affirmation that reality is an invention invites us to question what is meant by "reality."  Is reality what we are told to believe, and so someone else's invention?  Or our own invention based on collective and private images, stories and feelings we have about those stories?  Or is it a cultural convention and identification that disintegrates on closer inspection?  This unstable place is the reality I believe Witkin is referring to.  It is at times whimsical, yet there we are being strung along, moved like marionettes.  There is however, a deeper reality, it is deeper than language, story, image and feeling.  We like moths must go straight into the flame to experience this cessation, this original reality... when we are knowing from this deeper reality, the images, stories and feelings may be perceived as poignently and even comically rough and imprecise.  Laughter comes easily when you are free.