From the Preface: "Get real" was a slang term that became popular in the 1960's when Michael Hickey was growing up in East Boston. It implied that someone wasn't in touch with reality and had to change their way of thinking or living. If you put on the television today, all you might find is one of the hundreds of so-called reality TV shows. More often than not, these reality shows are illusions of reality because the "real persons" utilized as actors/performers are seemingly coached to act in certain ways by the directors, judges, or producers who really control the reality. Nonetheless, reality TV is a modern phenomenon; people watch it constantly, and that does indicate a high degree of the public's interest in some concept of reality. As for "mystery," it seems we are approaching an age where there will be the death of mystery, and we will have only reality. Hickey believes this is because the vast majority of the populace doesn't view reality in the context of mystery. They imagine mystery to be something which is just obscure or ambiguous, which given enough time, will be solved by reason and logic and become reality. Hickey's goal is that Get Real will give the reader a fresh understanding of both reality and mystery as seen from a theological and philosophical viewpoint. Ultimately, he intends the reader to move beyond the perceived duality in order to establish that mystery is truly the home of all reality.

About the Author
Michael Hickey is a graduate of Northeastern University and a Master Of Divinity Studies graduate of Weston Jesuit, a Boston College theological school. He retired as a successful entrepreneur to become a full time writer and poet. He is the author of Get Wisdom (2006) and Get Goodness: Virtue is the Power to Do Good (2011). Hickey writes a weekly column called "Words Of Wisdom" for The Naples Daily News and teaches courses on religion, philosophy, and poetry at Hodges University, CLL and Florida Gulf Coast University. His wife, Theresa, is a published poet, and in their forty-four years together they have raised four happy and "well-adjusted" children into adulthood.


Book Information
ISBN 9780761856597
Author Michael Hickey
Format Paperback
Page Count 150
Imprint University Press of America
Publisher University Press of America
Weight(grams) 259g
Dimensions(mm) 232mm * 156mm * 11mm