june 1: this wasn‘t taken today but i’m making an exception so our signed anthro sunset pics can be side by side hehe.
i started thinking about how we romanticize universal experiences after i read your post and the fascination we have with the idea that there are certain specific feelings or memories that almost anyone can relate to having. for instance, a mall you used to go to all the time being destroyed, or childhood deer meadows being overtaken by condos, or being a kid and watching raindrops race each other across the windshield during a stormy road trip. i’m sure part of it is nostalgia and the feeling of longing for a past that is now gone, but that doesn’t really explain why we tend to gravitate not just to experiences from our pasts, but experiences from our past that others can resonate with.
i think it’s a really weird but nice feeling to be made viscerally aware of the agency and humanity of others. on paper it’s easy to acknowledge that every person is equal, but the tendency to prioritize your experiences and needs over others is instinctive and hard to overcome from a purely intellectual standpoint, at least for me. it’s only really when coming across another person’s description of those aforementioned specific feelings that i’m really pulled out of myself and forced to acknowledge that while my experiences /are/ unique in the most granular sense, they are also far from it. my capacity to feel wistful about condos being constructed isn’t unique. it’s probably the opposite, honestly.
i think it’s a little scary to acknowledge my own mundanity, but it’s a lot more comforting to know that i’m not alone. thank you for always reminding me of that.
- j
