Sonder
n. The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own - populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries, and inherited craziness - and epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk
I found this on Reddit one day and it just made me think about how insignificant my life must be compared to the other 7 billion people on this planet. I've always thought of having so many problems, so much troubling me. But when you look at it from a wider perspective, billions of other people are having the same problems that you might have. Everyone shares their problems with everyone else, even though we might not meet each other in our entire lifetime.
Lets consider the man serving coffee at my local cafe up the street. I've gone up and asked for a cup of water and a bagel maybe a few times, not really interested in this person life. But for all we know, he could be deep in debt, working his butt off to make up for student loans on a wasted degree that he never needed. This man has no time for a relationship, he has become a slave to the banks. His life is just as complex as mine or yours, if not more. The more you think about it, the more fun this game becomes. You can fabricate fantastic lives for people just by glancing at their faces. Maybe that person speeding on the freeway was on their way to the delivery of their baby, or to a very important meeting. It’s the type of thing I like to do while I am walking around town. Plus, it helps get the creative juices flowing when it comes to writing stories.
As I near the end of your attention span, I must begin my concluding sentences. Your life is incomprehensibly small compared to the lives of the other people around you, most of whom you have never seen or never will see. And as much as we think that our lives are soooo much more important than the guy you shoved on the sidewalk, then think again. Because everyone you will ever meet is thinking, breathing, and feeling the same as you are. We think we are all different, but everyone is human.
Roman
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Portland, OR