To ask for weird realisations you’ve had about life?

[goergia]

Things about mundane life that you’ve never given much thought but suddenly think “Now I think about it, that’s weird.”

I had one of these today. I live in a mid-terrace, neighbours are nice and quiet and we don’t hear a peep. A few days ago I had a snoop at one of the next-door neighbour’s house on Rightmove after seeing it was for sale, and realised that they have their bed right up against our party wall as I do mine. So even though I sleep in bed alone every night, there’s actually 2 people who I don’t really know just a couple of inches away from me! I don’t know why but for some reason it creeps me out. I’ve realised that in terraced houses you’re actually sharing one building with lots of people, many of whom you will NEVER interact with.

Water.

That there is no "new" water on the planet and that it all goes through the water cycle. Basically I drink and wash with water that - partly - is recycled piss and the moisture squeezed from poo.

You do, too. Happy Easter.

That when I was born, WW2 had ended less than 30 years previously. No wonder our grandparents talked about it a lot. To me, now, 30 years ago is like yesterday.

Why doesn't it hurt when you're having an operation under anaesthetic - you're only deeply asleep (I think), and if someone cut you with a knife when you were asleep in your bed you'd definitely notice...

I just want to say I LOVE this thread and all the comments on here have really made me realise how small I am in the world and how nothing will matter when I'm no longer here so I need to learn to stress less and stop being so anxious and depressive! Almost everything in our human lives is socially constructed by us and isn't actually real. Except fear of death. I fear death so immensely I worry every day that I will die soon or lose a loved one prematurely. Need to stop worrying and just LIVE :)

How did cats and dogs evolve to be domesticated? I don’t get it.

Sometimes it freaks me out that there's a couple of wild animals who live in my house in exchange for food. They can come and go and always decide to come and sleep with me.

Also I'm fascinated by the theory of parallel universes - that life is a series of cause and effect and even tiny decisions can have a massive impact on your life many years later. We'll probably never know how life would have panned out if we'd made different choices but I often wonder what if?..

@headspin10

That we look at people weirdly if they breastfed their 6 year old, but we as adults still drink breastmilk! - only even weirder - from a different species 🤢🤢🤢

It's actually incredibly cruel too- the newborn calves are removed permanently from the mother cows at just hours old so we can have the milk. Many are shot (males)

Grim.

This. It's so weird when you think about it. And so, so cruel. As a mother there is nothing worse than the idea of being forcibly separated from your baby, and yet we do it all the time to cows just so we can drink their milk. We've somehow convinced ourselves that this is "natural". But generally our treatment of other species blows my mind- and not in a good way. How can we turn a blind eye to so much pain and suffering when it's quite clear that many animals experience the same emotions as humans.

Also, yes to people in positions of power not having a fucking clue. I've known many professionals who are just winging it all the time. It's all about confidence and rarely competence- look at the likes of Donald Trump.

Also, yes to other people going through the same processes/ feelings as us. I remember listening to the song "Everybody Hurts" and something so obvious just hit me.

@DrManhattan
That this could all be a simulation and we are all NPCs

It’s quite possible. The theory is that most intelligent civilisations such as us would develop virtual worlds/AI etc - just as we have done. And given that there are (or have been) thousands (if not millions) of species as intelligent as us or even vastly more intelligent than us across the universe …

I prefer to subscribe to the dark forest thinking. We are real biological flesh and blood beings. And those civilisations are out there, but thus far our tiny corner of this galaxy has so far escaped their notice.

Other languages tend to blow my mind a bit
If there were six people in a room who only speak their own language from different parts of the world , if they all pointed to a table they will all know it's function and what it's for , but everyone will have a different word for that piece of furniture and be thinking of that one word in a different way to each other
When I was about nine I thought that other people in other counties would have to convert their own language into English in their heads ! Madness , I know, but I couldn't comprehend how they could understand each other or how we can communicate without knowing how to speak their language ( just by pointing , for example !)
I wished we could all speak just one language in the world sometimes!

A few days ago I had a snoop at one of the next-door neighbour’s house on Rightmove after seeing it was for sale, and realised that they have their bed right up against our party wall as I do mine. So even though I sleep in bed alone every night, there’s actually 2 people who I don’t really know just a couple of inches away from me! I don’t know why but for some reason it creeps me out.

My bedroom would 'work' so much better if we put the bed against the party wall but I just can't bring myself to for that exact reason. I do know my neighbours very well and I know their bed is also not on the party wall. For some reason it would be so creepy to sleep and have sex right up against the wall we share, but it's fine across the other side of the room

That education is mostly brain washing. Those that are truly intelligent are free thinkers and usually classed as trouble makers as they don't conform.

That everyone here right now will be dead and mostly forgotten in 100 years.

So actually, nothing really matters, does it?

So what if the lady next door doesn’t like me for some unknown reason.

I just live to please myself.

@TheseDaysGoBy , we will all die but aside from trying to look after ourselves and avoiding massive risk, there’s nothing we can do and worrying won’t help so just , as you say, live!

I also used to get really sad that I’ve never done anything. No one will remember me. I’ve done nothing for this world.

Then one day, someone pointed out that one day, people like (example), Debbie Harry will just be an answer to a question on a pub quiz if they are lucky.

Put it into perspective.

@FussyLittleFucker

That when I was born, WW2 had ended less than 30 years previously. No wonder our grandparents talked about it a lot. To me, now, 30 years ago is like yesterday.

So true about the 30 years, I still think we're at the start of the 21st century and get amazed if I see or meet adults born this century. I tend to think of something we did in the mid 80s as being recent and do feel slightly surprised that other people's families have grown up, just like mine have.

We are just earths latest tenants.
There have been plenty of tenants before us and there will be plenty more after humans have long gone.
What will the world look like when we are all gone? What will remain of us? Every building and material that even hints of our existence will be either decomposed over millions of years or extremely buried if not totally gone.
Who are earths inhabitants before? I mean before our history / technology can currently investigate. If an alien species or any other species were here but every material they used has degraded 100’s of millions of years later we really wouldn’t know. There would be no trace.

I think about the simulation theory and it makes sense, and I see it as a possibility. For me living my life, maybe it doesn’t even matter either way. But then what about whoever has made the simulation? Are they real and how do they know they’re not in a simulation? And if they’re not, then they must have matter, energy, consciousness etc so are those things a mystery to them?

Ow my brain

I guess I’ve not matured past the kid in school who doesn’t realise the teacher doesn’t live there permanently until the next school day

Used to make me laugh when I bumped into kids outside of school. Even the loudest and most confident would get all shy and not look at me. Then they'd wait till we were next in class to say to me, in front of the class, "I saw you in tesco, miss". I know. I spoke to you. Like, not only did they find it hard to accept I was out of school, but that I wasn't even conscious of things that happened out of school and had to be told.

That everyone has an EARLIEST ancestor.. so I’ve done my family tree and gone back to 1450 on my dads side, but what about his father, and his father and his going back 1000s of years. How far back, and at what point does their father sort of look like an animal.. does that make sense? Like who or what was my earliest ancestor… BLOWS MY MIND

I cant comprehend how things were invented like the telephone , cameras , electricity I mean who thought of them in the first place ,switch a switch and a light comes on, pick up a telephone and call someone the other side of the world and how did anyone think of getting images on a photograph it all baffles me although I'm not surprised I used to think there was a light in the moon lol

@Keithlovessmash
That everyone here right now will be dead and mostly forgotten in 100 years.

This reminds me of a lovely quote, I can’t remember who said/wrote it to credit them but it goes something like this:
One hundred years from now
It won't matter what kind of car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
how much money I had
or what my clothes were like
But the world may be a little better because I was important in the life of a child.

The only reason we are all alive is because our ancestors survived everything up until now all the wars, the bubonic plague, viking invasion! Think how many family lines just ceased to be, but mine is still going!

When I was 10 in 1985 WW2 seemed like far far in the past and when my grandad went on about it it was like ancient history! But it was only 40 years! And 40 years ago now doesn't seem that long.

I lived in a single storey home for 15 years. The first night I slept upstairs in my new house I was hyper aware of being high up with loads of space underneath me.

Also agree with pps how we have made our lives unnecessarily complicated.

Being in the background in photographs. You take a photo, a random snapshot in time, on a beach or in a restaurant and there are people in the background unaware that they have been captured in time in that moment forever. How many photographs am I unwittingly in the background of.

@mynamesnotMa

That education is mostly brain washing. Those that are truly intelligent are free thinkers and usually classed as trouble makers as they don't conform.

As a secondary school teacher I would agree with this to an extent. Certainly primary schools and mainstream state academies are really there to churn out compliant, minion workers - all the obsessions with uniform and following arbitrary rules; no option to question anything; teaching them to regurgitate facts rather than actually think or challenge. I think once you get to university level then education does help you to think more critically and question the world.

@RoseLunarPink

I think about the simulation theory and it makes sense, and I see it as a possibility. For me living my life, maybe it doesn’t even matter either way. But then what about whoever has made the simulation? Are they real and how do they know they’re not in a simulation? And if they’re not, then they must have matter, energy, consciousness etc so are those things a mystery to them?

Ow my brain

If we are in a simulation I want to give the person running me a good kick.

Like, if they had control over individuals can that bastard make my life less shit please?