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.

"And that certain kinds of dreams are common to all of us. I find that fascinating."

I was surprised recently when someone said they never dreamed of being in water, either swimming or just being in water or drowning. I thought everyone did.

@MuchTooTired

A weird one I realised the other day is that people I see whilst out and about have whole actual lives. There’s a woman I see on the school run, every school day I drive past her in the morning, we smile at each other, then do the same in the afternoon. I saw her the other day in b&q and it completely threw me - it wasn’t a school day and she was there with her mum and blanked me.

Obviously I know everyone I see has a whole life just like I do, but it made me think about how many people there are, with lives that I know nothing about all over the world. 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

I had this with a woman I "knew" because she was usually standing at the bus stop opposite my house in the mornings, when I drew my curtains. We got to waving & mouthing hello to each other. I saw her one day in the high street & both our eyebrows shot up!

This thread has also made me seek this out again

@CatWoman12345

I often wonder what life changing invention we are missing because the inventor was killed before their time.

This one has just properly spooked me! @CatWoman12345 you’ve given me an exestential crisis!

It freaks me out that if a different of Dh's sperm had swum a bit faster, DC would be totally different people. Blows my mind.

@Rtmhwales when I was at uni about 2hrs from where I grew up I worked in a shop on Saturdays. My party trick was to tell people I served that I knew they were from the specific area of the East of England that I came from. I was always right. Could pinpoint the accent anywhere, despite it not sounding anything other than “south easty” to other people.

Lots of these resonate with me, great thread.

In particular the insignificance of our lives - I love it when pubs have old photos up of previous patrons propping up the bar. Looking at them often makes me think about the people in them, and the fact that they led a full and complicated life just like me, and that they are now gone and likely totally forgotten and their way of life is also gone. And all of that within 100 years or so! So imagine all the people in all the places through the whole of human history - I actually find this really comforting to think about when my problems and stresses seem to be getting too big.

[quote theluckiest]This thread has also made me seek this out again [/quote]
Always happy to have an excuse to watch this. Or anything of Tim’s.

That the atoms that make up humans come from stars. Blows my mind. And then when we die we’re just kind of recycled. 🤯

I sometimes wonder how close I've come to something bad happening to me. Like, did someone see me, and decide to mug me (or worse) but for some reason didn't. Someone else walked past, or a door opened, or I turned around, for example. Did something really mundane prevent something awful?

That in 100 years time, people will look back on photos of us and comment on us/our dress/our vehicles etc the way we do when we look at photos of the 1920s. They will wonder how we got by without whatever gadgets/technology they have in the future.

When I get the train to work in the morning, everyone is quiet and most people look fed up and miserable. Every one of those people has been in a social situation where they've laughed with friends and family. I picture them doing so one by one!

@TheCoverIsNotTheBook I was coming on to say that.
Like how much of our life luck or is it planned out for us

The other thing that freaks me out,is the ocean.
It's so vast.
Also Jaws didn't really help.

that people you once knew and worked with ,were friends with cant be arsed to reconnect with you years later , a few months ago i friended someone i once was good friends with many years ago on facebook , she immediatly asked what iv been upto over the last how many years and i told her , she told me some basic stuff, said shed never moved out of her childhood home , i replied how lucky she was ,as iv had the aggro of moveing more times than iv had hot dinners , along those lines anyway and she never replied back and several months later took me off her friends list lol ,

someonce else i once worked with and knew well never responded either , i thought its nice to reconnect with people and share what you have done , had kids , got married , where you work , but i guess not , i must be the only person with this level of curiosity

we only have 5 (6?) senses. what's to say there's not a load of aliens or other things all around us all the time but existing within a space that we can't see / hear / feel / smell or taste so we are totally unaware

I always thought that doctors, politicians etc were these superhuman, mega intelligent beings who were more capable and in control than I would ever be. Then you age and realise that they are not and it’s terrifying, who is at the helm?

Have you seen the film Idiocracy? That genuinely scared me as it seemed like a prophecy of society getting dumber and adults becoming less functional!

Why, when historians and archeologists uncover things, are they always underground? Where has this extra 'ground' (soil) come from so quickly?

Cheese.

There are no eggs in cheese. Fuck me, I had to have a sit down after that one.

@2ndMrsdeWinter yes same here! Body processes. My heart keeps beating, breathing keeps happening, food is digested, my body regulates its own temperature and fluid balance. All without thinking about it!

Also - what's underneath me? If I'm lying in bed, there is the bed, then the floor, then the ceiling of the next room, then space, another floor, foundations of house, ground, all the layers of earth's crust...all the way down to the centre of the earth. If I kept going at what point on the other side of the earth would I emerge? What would be there??

I think what suddenly hits me is when I look at much older people and how sedate their lives are (this has struck me with my mum lately as she's just turned 80), that at one point they were youngsters with plans and aspirations, dashing off to dances all excited, flirting, falling in love.. and it actually makes me sad and I'm not sure why! I guess I just wonder if their lives tuned out the way they always hoped they would.

Why, when historians and archeologists uncover things, are they always underground? Where has this extra 'ground' (soil) come from so quickly?

They're not always underground but the ones that aren't don't need to be discovered IYSWIM.

They can be underground for various reasons eg covered up deliberately by people in the past like Gobekli Tepe, built on top of like Troy, covered by sand storms/sand dunes like Skara Brae, volcanic eruption like Pompeii, or sometimes over a long time if a ruin is left alone, plants and animals will colonise it and eventually soil will build up over it.

@Wiredforsound

That we think our country is the centre of the world and other countries are secondary to us, the US, the EU, Australia and New Zealand. It blew my mind to find out how much history, and culture, and pride there are in what we call second and third world countries - bands bigger than the Beatles, huge cinema industries making movies we’ll never hear of, cities bigger than London and New York, and there’s so much stuff we’re missing out on - Georgian ballet is a world away from we know as ballet, amazing choirs, huge leagues of sports we don’t play. Our world is amazing.

My father's cousin is a very famous singer and actor in Mexico. He has a career that began in the 1950's, has sung on 90 albums and has appeared in 50 films. He has sold out tours (he's on your now) all over his home country.

Yet, he has a house in the US where he hangs out, away from the spotlight in Mexico, and spends his days watering his lawn and tending to his garden. No one of his American neighbors has a clue that he's a big star.

That people assume knowledge they have read is correct especially online information.I can see something historically incorrect on this thread right now.

I love looking at really old photos and wondering what was passing through their heads at that exact moment in time.

That, when we die, the atoms we're made of just carry on as if nothing had happened.

I’ve had the life/death/alien experiences.

If you do think too closely about it it does blow your mind!

If you believe in reincarnation, ghosts, nothing at all happens when you die, up to you! But the older you get I find you’re less scared of death and more about making the most of your life, whatever cards you’re dealt with.