OT: Sonder

misterhub
misterhub Posts: 6,621 Member
Sonder (from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows).

“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.”

Replies

  • GavinFlynn1
    GavinFlynn1 Posts: 1,664 Member
    I like that!
    Thought provoking.
  • linmueller
    linmueller Posts: 1,354 Member
    I love that! And I agree with Gavin, very thought provoking!
  • myallforjcbill
    myallforjcbill Posts: 5,734 Member
    We are all so amazingly interconnected. Sometimes just background noise, but often more but invisible. Little happens on our own. Good to remember and with good coffee, to contemplate on. Might need a second cup.
  • lowbar31
    lowbar31 Posts: 6,941 Member
    I was not familiar with the word but the concept is interesting. I think about how every once in awhile you meet someone you know in a place you didn't expect. It makes me wonder how many of those 'ants' in the background I have a connection with but never realize it.
  • mr_sandyman
    mr_sandyman Posts: 187 Member
    Wow! Consider that stolen, I'm going to use this word often.
    I have a teenage granddaughter that needs to contemplate her relative place in the universe and how even a casual comment to (or from) others is directly proportional to their place in their universe.
    This could help this good kid deal with the thoughtlessness of those around her.