Sonder

Some of you may or may not (atleast now you do) know that I like to write, and also to ponder about the nooks and crannies of life itself. I mostly write down short snippets of thoughts that pop up during my bus rides, etc. I recently came across a word I had never heard of before. It's "sonder".
 

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—an 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 did some research, and it's not a word that can be found in a "real" dictionary (yet). It was invented/created on the site called The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (DoOS). It made me think quite a lot. We all just go about our lives each and every day, and never really wonder about the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of faces we pass every day.

The next time you are in public, look at the people around you. May it be on the train or when walking in the mall. Try to realize they are living a entire life of experiences, losses, miracles and surprises you will NEVER know about, and realize it will be the samefor them about you. They will walk past you. And for an instant, you are in their life. Maybe not as a "real" person. You will be "that guy that just walked past". After that, you're out. You'll blink out of existance for them. Of course, there are exceptions. You may actually lay your eyes on someone that never will leave your life (gorramit love).

Anyway, I would not see this as a sad thing. It made me feel kind of special, knowing that I for a split second was in someone else’s life. I wonder, did they think about me? What my hopes and dreams are? We’re small in a big world, or the other way around you may say.

I just wanted to share this word and following thoughts with you people. Feel free to post your thoughts here, or the scale of the damage that was caused by your mind blowing up. </end philosophy post>

Edited November 18, 201312 yr by ineseri