Enlightenment For Breakfast

I came across this post at Cantheworldhearme and it touched on a topic that I have been dealing with for years. The author writes about how everyone in the world has a story and we really know very little about these stories. The writer did an amazing job describing this topic and I would like to add some of my own feelings to this somewhat tricky subject.

First of all, all my life I’ve felt alone in this feeling. Now I know other people must believe this but I haven’t seen it often in others. People are often quick to reject people and quick to discard them for friendship or otherwise. Or even just for their value as a human being. I learned early on that every human has value and everyone has a story. We all live out a story every day of our lives and no one really knows what we struggle with or what we achieve. No one but us and the people closest to us and often not even they know. Sometimes we are all alone in our battles and our triumphs. Life can be a uniquely private experience.

The post in question also refers to another blog known as the monkeysphere. This blog gets us into thinking about how we basically have a set of people we know and care about and everyone outside of that sphere we really don’t know or care about on that level. The best way I can personalize this is in my own life. I watch the news and hear about people dying in war torn countries and it doesn’t make me flinch. Sure these people are people, with lives and families and jobs and hopes and dreams. To me though they are nameless faces, so I can pass them by. If I were to lose someone as a casualty of war, I would be affected because I know them and they are in my “story,” as I am in theirs.

Lastly, the author discusses how blogs give us the ability to share ourselves in ways that were never available before. I wholeheartedly agree with this. With millions and millions of bloggers out there sharing their stories every day with a huge global audience the gap is being bridged, somewhat. Now I know that gap will never be completely bridge because in some way we are completely isolated in ourselves in many ways. But now we have the ability to share pieces of our lives that we did not have the chance to do before. I don’t really know if we can learn to care about people this way and maybe we’re just not supposed to. Taking on everyone in the world is a lot, and too much. But if we expand to understand more people we may be making progress as a society and as a whole human race. This is tricky stuff and I haven’t completely grasped it yet but it struck a nerve with me and I needed to spill my feelings out on the table.

Finally I just wanted to touch on the fact that the author ended by saying that he was writing his story on his blog and he wanted to know if the world could hear him and better yet if he could hear the world. I have not come across a statement like that before and it hit home with me. I write when I don’t know something, I write when I know something. I write when I’m mad, when I’m happy and when I’m confused. I write to help people and myself. I write to reach a larger audience and I write to send my story into the world it hopes that someone else’s story will bounce back to me. So maybe I am trying to hear the world too. It’s a worthy goal and ambition.

Maybe we should all try to hear the world and listen to what it’s saying. After all, I do believe the answers are out there, sometimes we’re just talking too loud to hear them. Listen to the world and listen to each other, the answers to your questions are other there and sometimes you don’t have to look so hard. Just remember everyone DOES have a story, take the time to listen, you may see shades of yourself in there. Understanding is something that is lacking these days, do your part and bring it back. Who knows someday you may be the one looking for your story to be heard.