Microcosms ~essay
Completely random thought that I'm having on my lunch break, and I totally may go home and reread this, wondering what the heck my point was...
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Do you ever have a moment - whether it be in the car at an intersection, or in line at the grocery store, or in a crowded waiting room - where you stop and think, "every single person in this space has a complex story?"
He may be coming home to visit his girlfriend, who he hasn't seen in over a year, because he's been overseas. She may be on her way to meet up with her bowling league - something she hesitatingly joined at work because she's new to the area and doesn't know anyone. They may be taking their newborn baby out for a long drive because she hasn't yet slept. That old man may be meeting up with his estranged daughter for the first time in 12 years. The possibilities are endless, but anyway, there you all are. Your experiences all colliding; your circumstances all leading you to this exact spot at this exact time.
And the collision is so fleeting - you rarely recognize it when it happens, and when it does (i.e. at a crowded intersection, in the waiting room) it's often observed as an annoyance or an obstacle of the final destination. Everyone is en route; everyone has a goal; and everyone is only thinking about that. Each of us is just one tiny, miniscule working component of a much larger system. We all care so deeply about so much, but those perspectives are so relatively insignificant.
That said, what makes me any more important than the people I'm sharing this tiny interaction with? Why am I so impatient with them? Why do I only view their presence as an inconvenience to me? (There's probably some evolution-based answer as to how we filter out the stimuli not immediately relevant to us, but regardless...)
I know it's impossible to be tolerant of others 24/7, but I wish we would all try harder to be. I find myself sometimes getting so angry about things I have no control over and about people I know nothing about. I like to think I'm a pretty grounded, respectful, friendly person, but I wonder how many people have misjudged my character and motivations based on one interaction. Maybe I came off as standoffish because I was actually really nervous about something that day. Or maybe I came off as ____ because I hadn't slept the night before. And vice versa - I probably make a lot of unfair assumptions about people I really don't know.
My long tangential rant leads me to this: I want to try work on tolerance and empathy. We may not know the motives behind everyone's actions, but we likely have felt what they're feeling and have done similar things. And we shouldn't let negative interactions affect our moods or opinions because those are only representing a menial fraction of our daily encounters.
So that was random! I totally didn't intend to write about this topic, but I figured I'd run with it and see where my mind went.
On another note, my one band has a new song coming out F-r-i-d-a-y--y-a-y! It was a really self-reflective and informative writing process, so I'm excited to share that later this week. : )
~
Do you ever have a moment - whether it be in the car at an intersection, or in line at the grocery store, or in a crowded waiting room - where you stop and think, "every single person in this space has a complex story?"
He may be coming home to visit his girlfriend, who he hasn't seen in over a year, because he's been overseas. She may be on her way to meet up with her bowling league - something she hesitatingly joined at work because she's new to the area and doesn't know anyone. They may be taking their newborn baby out for a long drive because she hasn't yet slept. That old man may be meeting up with his estranged daughter for the first time in 12 years. The possibilities are endless, but anyway, there you all are. Your experiences all colliding; your circumstances all leading you to this exact spot at this exact time.
And the collision is so fleeting - you rarely recognize it when it happens, and when it does (i.e. at a crowded intersection, in the waiting room) it's often observed as an annoyance or an obstacle of the final destination. Everyone is en route; everyone has a goal; and everyone is only thinking about that. Each of us is just one tiny, miniscule working component of a much larger system. We all care so deeply about so much, but those perspectives are so relatively insignificant.
That said, what makes me any more important than the people I'm sharing this tiny interaction with? Why am I so impatient with them? Why do I only view their presence as an inconvenience to me? (There's probably some evolution-based answer as to how we filter out the stimuli not immediately relevant to us, but regardless...)
I know it's impossible to be tolerant of others 24/7, but I wish we would all try harder to be. I find myself sometimes getting so angry about things I have no control over and about people I know nothing about. I like to think I'm a pretty grounded, respectful, friendly person, but I wonder how many people have misjudged my character and motivations based on one interaction. Maybe I came off as standoffish because I was actually really nervous about something that day. Or maybe I came off as ____ because I hadn't slept the night before. And vice versa - I probably make a lot of unfair assumptions about people I really don't know.
My long tangential rant leads me to this: I want to try work on tolerance and empathy. We may not know the motives behind everyone's actions, but we likely have felt what they're feeling and have done similar things. And we shouldn't let negative interactions affect our moods or opinions because those are only representing a menial fraction of our daily encounters.
So that was random! I totally didn't intend to write about this topic, but I figured I'd run with it and see where my mind went.
On another note, my one band has a new song coming out F-r-i-d-a-y--y-a-y! It was a really self-reflective and informative writing process, so I'm excited to share that later this week. : )
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