sonder
intricacy of life
the population of bombay is around 20.9 million people, that is 20.9 million people with their own problems, thoughts, emotions and situations. whenever i think about this it makes me realise how little we are in the grand scheme of life. and that how everyone around you is living a life of their own thats just as complex as your own. everyone is the main character in their story and you can be a crucial part if someone’s or the random girl at the grocery shop in someone else’s.
there’s a word for this,’sonder’ and i found a definition online that is so perfect that i could never do it justice by rewriting it.
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
-The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
what i’ve learnt recently is that i shouldn’t let the concept of sonder overwhelm me or make me feel like because everyones life is so complex that it doesn’t hold any value. each and every life is a gift and that while we think about sonder and the depth of a passerby’s life, we shouldn’t forget about the intricacy of our own.
sonder : everyone has their own story
i love u.
have a good one:)
