alexptrans wrote:
It really bothers me when I meet a new person. For me it's a scary thought to think that this person has existed for two-three decades, or however long, and I don't know anything about what they've been doing during that entire time. I mean, for some reason the idea that they have led a separate existence from mine for so long when I've just met them is disturbing. Which is why I prefer to be around people I've known since I was a little kid. Has anyone else experienced something similar?
i feel a "variation" of this feeling, often when watching urban crowds (sitting in an airport or train or bus station or just on a piazza). all these people lead lives separate from mine, hurrying home to their families or work places, having goals, worries, hobbies, responsibilities that i will never know of, unless either chance or a common interest brings us into contact.
i sometimes become completely absorbed in this musing and "invent" lives for people that i only saw for a split second dashing past me, sounds nuts, i know.
once i am absorbed into this thinking i feel like i am floating and everything and everybody becomes insignificant and all-important at the same time, meaning our average life span nowadays and in the western world stretches to about 70 years and this is nothing compared to evolution, yet so much has been changed and created and destroyed by these minute specks in time, because they are in "possession" of two things - consciousness and language (which are probably interlinked anyway ).