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Original poster

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

1008 replies

goergia · 13/04/2022 23:49

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.

OP posts:
RoseLunarPink · 14/04/2022 19:02

palmplantcirca1980s that kind of resonates with me except I had the opposite realisation at the same age - that not all adults were selfish, hurtful arseholes and they could really care about me. Thanks to a lovely teacher who went out of her way to help me. But it was the same process of realising that what it’s like in your family doesn’t represent the whole world.

Terfydactyl · 14/04/2022 19:04

@SolarPortrait

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.
This is especially true now, back in the pre camera phone era, film was expensive to buy and process. So generally the camera only came out on occasions like Christmas and birthdays. Not likely to get so many randoms in the background. Now however I dodge those with the phone out obviously either filming or taking pictures. Worse theres a youtuber not far away and I've had to dodge him loads. On that note, a local news programme used to have my grandma in the background of their credits. Back in about 1982. I saw it recently on an outtakes show. Brought back memories.
stripeyflowers · 14/04/2022 19:08

@Orangecell

I’m late 40s and when I was born my great grandmother was alive who was born in 1898. My nephew was born 2014 and hopefully he will live to see the year 2100. This means that people alive in the 1800s, 1900s, 2000s and 2100s will have known me.
Have thought lots of these before but never this one.

It blows my mind!

stripeyflowers · 14/04/2022 19:18

My lovely nephews and niece, ages 6-12, so full of life and laughter, will have grown up, grown old (hopefully), and passed away for sure by 2122. Makes me so sad.

nopuppiesallowed · 14/04/2022 19:24

@Fuckitsstillraining

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.
Try moving to the south west. I'm sure that the (lovely) man who built our garage thought I was deaf because every time he spoke to me I said "Pardon. Can you repeat that?"
RagzRebooted · 14/04/2022 19:28

@spudjulia

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.

I sometimes look at my cat lying next to me and think - you're just a teeny tiny tiger that lives in my house and sleeps in my bed and me us pick you up and cuddle you, in return for food and shelter. You have freedom to go wherever you please, but you choose to stay with us. It's mental!
weeeeeeeeee · 14/04/2022 19:34

I thought of one today when I was sitting on the bus with my 13 yo DS but I don't know if I will be able to explain it very well.

Basically, I realised that some young people don't give up seats for older/ pregnant etc. people because they have no actual real life understanding of why the other person might need that seat. I mean obviously we teach our children that it is the polite thing to do. And we all know that some old people aren't as strong as young people.

But it's only now that I'm in my late 30s Shock, overweight and often tired that I am more conscious of people that must feel even worse than me and would need my seat.

I haven't explained that very well, sorry.

GalactatingGoddess · 14/04/2022 19:35

Something that I find jarring/makes me suddenly halt in the day is that at any given time there's something horrific happening to a child and there's nothing I can do about it. It's a very invasive thought to have.

Comedycook · 14/04/2022 19:35

Sometimes I wonder how many people the water I'm drinking has passed through over millennia

Kissifer · 14/04/2022 19:38

Sometimes when I’m having a good look at all my teeth, I suddenly realise that there’s a skeleton underneath the skin, hair, clothes etc that is almost identical to every other human being on earth. We are very much the same as each other!
Bit of a weird thought?😳
The differences are what we do to ourselves… weight, hairstyle, clothing, make up or surgery… take that away, we the same pile of bones!😁

stripeyflowers · 14/04/2022 19:38

That I live through the date and time of my own death every year and have done since I was born.

likemindedarseholes · 14/04/2022 19:45

One that still gets me, that we just keep finding some people our age attractive. I never used to get that as a teen, that one day a 50 year old would be 'hot'. And I'm sure one day I'll see an eighty year old who gives me fanny gallops, obviously when I'm 80 too!

stripeyflowers · 14/04/2022 19:46

That there is so much untapped, undiscovered genius in the world, in any country, but particularly so in underdeveloped counties where the emphasis is on mere survival. All those adults and children, anyone of them may be another Mozart, Pele, Nureyev or Rembrandt.

Benjispruce4 · 14/04/2022 19:47

@stripeyflowers Stop!!!! Grin

Benjispruce4 · 14/04/2022 19:48

That was in relation to your death time post. That’s a thought I don’t need.

stripeyflowers · 14/04/2022 19:50

@Benjispruce4

That was in relation to your death time post. That’s a thought I don’t need.
Sorry! I know. It makes me shiver.
FangsForTheMemory · 14/04/2022 19:50

That most of the people in charge are there because they are ego-driven, not because they want to make the world a better place.

This is why we're in such a mess.

Also, on a personal basis: I'm never going to change the whole world for the better. All I can do is try to make it better for the people I know, on a small and individual basis.

Mummytobe93 · 14/04/2022 19:51

Looking at family albums and my childhood photos, I’m always taken back by the circle of life.

That I’m where my mum was 30 years ago, and that I’ll be where she is now in 30 years. And she will be where my grandma is now.
So just like I’m looking back at my teenage years, my mum looks at her 30s and my grandma at her 50s.

Generation after generation …

likemindedarseholes · 14/04/2022 19:53

@weeeeeeeeee I get what you mean.

Comedycook · 14/04/2022 19:55

I find it weird to think everyone exists because two people had sex....with the exception of ivf but that's a tiny tiny percentage and only a fairly recent thing

likemindedarseholes · 14/04/2022 19:56

@stripeyflowers yes! Part of my job is looking at the IQ of some prisoners. So many have a ridiculously high IQ, and they've spent their lives doing crack and nicking stuff. Imagine if they'd been born into wealth and not had shit childhoods?

stripeyflowers · 14/04/2022 19:57

We found a video of a family party. They were all having a grand old time, singing, dancing and laughing. It felt like being in the room with them. It was in the early 90s, They have since all passed away bar one.

The room they were in looked more or less the same until a few years ago. Now, someone else has the house and everything has been replaced or painted or wallpapered over, as though all that family jollity was never there . . . I think about it a lot. My DH thinks I'm barmy!

stripeyflowers · 14/04/2022 19:58

[quote likemindedarseholes]@stripeyflowers yes! Part of my job is looking at the IQ of some prisoners. So many have a ridiculously high IQ, and they've spent their lives doing crack and nicking stuff. Imagine if they'd been born into wealth and not had shit childhoods?[/quote]
Yes, I think about that too. Life has such an element of luck in it, in no way can it ever be described as fair.

Zilla1 · 14/04/2022 20:05

What's the incidence of illiteracy among prisoners too?

likemindedarseholes · 14/04/2022 20:17

@Zilla1 pretty high too! It's not that everyone is a genius but that some of the IQ levels are surprising. Seems like such a waste.

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