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.

I moved 120km from one part of Ireland to another, I'm from a part with a very nondescript accent understandable by all but really struggled to understand a lot of people where I moved to, they could all understand me but 13 years on I'm still stumped sometimes. A colleague of my husband is a mystery to me, I simply haven't a clue what he's saying sometimes.

I agree with everyone saying it's mind-blowing how insignificant we are as individuals. But also - the universe is different to what it would have been if I didn't exist. OK only 0.00000000000001% different (probably a lot more zeroes needed) but you get my point? You, me & Auntie Marjorie do exist or have existed and so the village, country, planet, universe have been affected by that. I am part of the universe!

Going to museums always blows my mind because I’m an intelligent and well-educated person by modern standards but there is no way on earth I’d ever be able to discover/invent any of the things past people did, both complex things like geometry and astrolabes but also simple things like bread and pottery!

I work in financial services and I also sometimes just think about how it’s all a load of nonsense and I wonder if it all disappeared, would we miss it? Would we recreate it?

That I'm the same person, in my head, as I was when I was a kid, or a teenager. There was no jump where I became an adult. And therefore, looking back, my parents were also winging it, all the time I assumed they knew everything.
And now I look at my kids and realise those brains and opinions and feelings will be walking around as adults one day. Mad.

Another weird realisation I have is how much of our time is spent maintaining things we own or have. It seems as if it's literally about 40-50% of our lives- washing clothes and bedding we own; hoovering and cleaning our homes; washing up dishes; bathing or showering, washing our hair, cleaning our teeth; washing cars or bikes; cutting grass in the garden. Just an endless Sisyphean hamster wheel! Never completed; just needs to be done again the next day or week!

Oh and my house was built in 1885, it blows my mind to think about all the dozens of people that have lived here and what different lives they all led, and all the changes in society the house has stood through.

@carefullycourageous

I find it mind blowing how awful/destructive/murderous exploration/invasion/empire-building was. I look at a country like USA and think - there was a whole place full of people living their way before some bastards rocked up. Same with the Vikings. And slavery of course. What would those places be like now if that hadn't happened, if the empire-building nations had not been like that.

Yeah, those bastards were your English and Welsh Protestant ancestors.

@Handsnotwands

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

...and we can't possibly comprehend another sense or what it might be like. Just like I've tried to imagine how it would feel inside my body if I was an animal (say a dog) but I can only imagine myself on all fours which isn't the same thing at all!

@TheCoverIsNotTheBook

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?

Oooo creepy

@RoseLunarPink

arghwhataminefield

So, for example on Time Team, when they have to dig meters down to uncover the foundations of a centuries old structure. Are you saying the soil is the remains of old plants and animals? And where has the structure actually gone?!

Yes soil is basically something that collects and increases where there are living things, because it's made of dead plant and animal matter and bacteria/other microbes that feed on them. So the start with the world didn't have soil - it collected over time as life moved onto land.

If a structure is abandoned, without maintenance and repair it will gradually crumble, weather will get in increasing the damage, it will loose its roof and then walls will start to collapse, finally leaving just foundations, unless it's a very strong stone structure. Even stone structures will ultimately crumble because of weathering. Once the structure is open to the elements, plants and animals can get in and grow there and the more they do, the more soil will collect. With old buildings in the past, any useful stones were usually removed for other building projects so they don't tend to be lying around, so you're often left with foundations or low walls.

here's a pic showing an early stage of the process.

Fascinating (to me!) thank you!

That we eat other animals and that they also resulted from an egg and sperm meeting and grew in a womb like we do. ( and I'm still not a vegetarian)
That when I am on holiday somewhere, I am just as annoying to the local people there as I find holidaymakers when they come to my part of the world.

Money, we really can't live without it.
If it were to disappear then the whole fabric of society would break up overnight
No incentive to work , nothing would get done and anarchy would be the norm as people just grabbed everything they could.
It's the root of most evil, but we do need it to keep civilization going.

Seems the realisation that we are weirdly perched on a globe in space etc is a common one. I find it so disturbing that I avoid watching TV programmes about space likewise programmes about volcanoes and earthquakes because of what is going on inside the earth’s mantle.

That glass is semi liquid and overtime moves — so ancient panes of glass are thicker at the bottom edge because the molecules of glass or whatever have moved with gravity.
Sorry not a scientist so don’t possess the correct terminology but you get my drift,I hope.
Similarly that everything consists of molecules which move.
Electricity “flows” along the wires.
It’s all so weirdly magical.

Here's a new(ish) and quite relevant one...

That some people think that cat owners can train their cat???!

😹😹

Not sure if this is a realisation but I was genuinely flabbergasted to the point of being angry that the midwives would let me take my newborn twins home when I didn’t know what the hell I was doing! I thought they were really irresponsible lol (and I was 33, happily married with a great support system), although they were premature and barely eating so that wouldn’t have helped my anxiety.

That every single human being, including those with the most evil depraved behaviours starts life as someone's dear little baby.

@pigalow

Another weird realisation I have is how much of our time is spent maintaining things we own or have. It seems as if it's literally about 40-50% of our lives- washing clothes and bedding we own; hoovering and cleaning our homes; washing up dishes; bathing or showering, washing our hair, cleaning our teeth; washing cars or bikes; cutting grass in the garden. Just an endless Sisyphean hamster wheel! Never completed; just needs to be done again the next day or week!

Exactly. I described my job as a SAHM as a professional mover. I moved groceries, laundry, children constantly and it never ends…

That I am mortal, and one day I will die. I will not be here, and my family and friends will go on without me. Someone will have to deal with all my 'stuff'. My children will have lives that I shall know nothing about, and they'll talk about me in the past tense.
Obviously, I always knew this in an intellectual sense, but since hitting 60, it has become very real.

Remembering the pre-mobile phone and pre-internet, pre-social media age. I can’t fully remember how that worked but I’m pretty sure it was a happier time in many ways.

I don't think it was really? If someone wasn't where they were meant to be when they were supposed to be there, panic set in very quickly. A lot of time was wasted standing in one spot so you wouldn't miss someone, when now you can just text. I remember standing outside a public phone box for nearly two hours waiting for my friend to ring. I suppose we ere more patient - because we had to be.

Homework was a nightmare, a real drudge, probably for the teachers as well as the students. It's very hard for kids/teens to research something when the only information on the topic in town is in two library books that have both been checked out. I can remember getting the bus into a larger town just to look through the non fiction section and take notes (until the shop assistant told me to clear off). Now there are countless resources available by phone.

That every single human being, including those with the most evil depraved behaviours starts life as someone's dear little baby.

Sadly, some babies are never loved, not even from day one.

I had a horrible thought once whilst sitting with dh and my 2dc. One day, there will only be one of us left and the remaining one will have been to all three of our funerals. Pretty depressing

I had a mid-life realisation that there were all these little things/ambitions that I assumed and said I would get around to doing 'one day', then realised I'd better get on with it!

Remembering the pre-mobile phone and pre-internet, pre-social media age. I can’t fully remember how that worked but I’m pretty sure it was a happier time in many ways

No, it was crap!

Not being able to tell someone you were u go king to be late, not being able to look something up instantly, having to use a road map when driving. The list is endless.

Life with the internet and especially smart phones is far easier.

I've posted about this before and it's a bit grim but when I'm in the bath I look at my feet and think 'one day these actual feet will probably be on a mortuary slab with people bustling round doing their jobs around me' so weird that people I've never met might be handling my body.
I reckon it would be better when you died if you just disappeared in a puff of smoke!