Joe,
I came to your essay after you left a comment on mine and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised. I was expecting all sorts of theories and analogies on light and matter but got a wonderful introduction to the concept of reality and its uniqueness.
Just as a fun prank, here's another thing for you to consider: How do we ever know what the unique reality really ever was? For everything we see, hear or otherwise measure is, in-fact, a time-delayed, space-manipulated or otherwise modified measurement!
All we really have to work with are simply, perceptions. And we all know how error-prone they can be.
But, does that really mean we cannot do anything if we don't know reality to its finest detail? Don't we, whether we are scientists, theologians, mothers or fathers, always reach a personal point of "now, that's good enough" and proceed to act from there?
We are all realists, but different in unique ways, no doubt!
