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.

So many times I’ve heard of something bad being done by a person in real life and the shock from friends/associates - “but he seemed so nice!!”. And I always think, what is their thought process here - that the person is going to walk around with a sign saying Bad Guy on it? The scammers and liars and so on get away with it for so long by being good at hiding their true nature from the majority of people.

I know that’s true, but OTOH you do meet people who give you the creeps or a bad feeling, and anecdotally (there have been threads about it too) you’re often right. So I can understand the shock when someone really nice-seeming, who has done nice things/been a friend, turns out to have been capable of something terrible. I think some nasty people are very good at hiding it and being charming, but not all, so it can throw you a bit.

Also the grim realisation that you’ve been friendly and got on with them. We had a lovely neighbourhood gardener who did everyone’s gardens and was much loved and seemed like a nice friendly chatty kind old bloke. Then it emerged he had a stash of child abuse photos and was arrested and convicted. It was horrible. Not just that he seemed nice, but that I’d been friendly with him, had him pottering round my garden and made him cuppas. Not near my DC but still felt weird.

I think my first one was about the universe going on forever too. I remember discussing it with my mum and she said "well if it doesn't go on forever, what's there instead?". I think it was too big a question for my brain to cope with and I just forgot about it!

Maybe not quite the thing you're after, but I always wonder how things like bread evolved - I mean who sat there and thought "if I crush the grain from this grass, I'll get this white stuff. I can mix it with water, put a bit of this manky looking fungus in it, and it will make it puff up and then I can put it in/on the fire and it will make something really tasty." I do understand the process evolved over time and wasn't just one person - it just amazes me

yes I've often wondered about this too. Also berries/mushrooms etc - I suppose it was just trial and error, early humans ate things and either died or didn't, and the rest of us profit from their experiments.

My son put this well. There were some idiots pushing into the queue for school dinner and he thought ' when I'm adult I won't have to put up with this crap ever again '. But now he realises he was mistaken to think this !🙄

i think about when i die. how i will be in the middle of life - mid way through a series on tv, part way through a book, that sort of thing. life doesn't tie up and that freaks me out sometimes
My uncle made himself a cup of coffee after work, sat down in his armchair and died before he drank it. It seems so wierd that he made that cup of coffee fully expecting to be around to drink it but then he wasnt.

That most things don’t really matter. In 50 years, no one’s going to know who didn’t take the bins out, empty the dishwasher, change the baby, etc etc in our tiny lives. Most of the things we do are so insignificant. Depressing or freeing? You decide… 😂

That the average human being is pretty stupid - and that 50% of humans are more stupid than that.

I recall nature/nurture being a big thing during my teacher training in the late 1960s, there was a study that was very in vogue but I can't remember its name or the author.

It might have already been mentioned but I am always astounded by the fact that we don't know our death date. We know our birth date, but every year we will pass our death date without knowing it.

This thread is one of the most interesting ones I've read for years.

I am an atheist.

the thing that blows my mind is how staggeringly beautiful nature is. A flower evolved entirely to attract insects to pollinate it. Trees and forests evolved to grow, multiply and die. Why do we find beauty in a sunset, a snow covered mountain range, lakes among hills, dappled water, many animals and birds, it’s all so wonderful. Even a single leaf can be amazing, and it all evolved before we even came on the scene.

I understand why other humans can look beautiful, we evolved to attract mates. But why do we find the rest so gorgeous. And do other species appreciate beauty?

Another one. If you visit a place regularly, let's say a favourite beach, one day it will be your last visit and you are unlikely to know.

When I see my cats chase and eat flies, I think, how weird it is that their food is flying about. It would be the equivalent of me sitting here with mini pizzas flying all over the place.

Just thought of another. I used to sometimes stay at the house a boyfriend lived in, sleeping on the second floor. The house was later demolished and there is a single storey building there now. When I go past I always think it's weird that I slept in a space which is now outdoors and unsupported by walls or a floor.

The average reading age is around 9 years old. It explains a lot of social media interactions.

Of the UK population I should add.

Or that one day, you'll pick up your child for the last time! I don't remember when that was (DS now 17) but there would have been a last time! Also last time he slept in my bed etc.

Another one is the difference between babies and older versions of people. I had a baby who is now nothing like DS, and although I know they are the same person, they are nothing like the same. It's like I had a baby - but that baby has gone now! A baby that I knew so well and was such a massive part of my life...gone! Where's my baby??? IYSWIM!!

There is a time when you pick your child up for the last time and you have no idea when that will be or when it's happening. Ditto them falling asleep on you.

How can you 'feel' that someone is staring at you?

My great nan said that these days (the 90s/00s) made life a lot easier by not forcing marriage in case of children. I remember her having this saying "You should never marry too fast. When the constant lust fades, what you're left with is a person you either can or can't tolerate."

And that makes me think now, simplistically, when people are stuck in dead end relationships, it is because they can't tolerate that person and life really is too short to stick with anything you can't tolerate if you can change it. Weight, relationships, jobs, homes, routine. Misery is rooted in things we can't tolerate.

Dancing!
That we get up on a dance floor and all do different movements to the rhythm of some music.

Songs!

That nearly all songs are about men/women/boy/girl/love.

I really love this thread, so thought provoking, but also sad. I think my realisations are that we all turn to dust eventually, even the liveliest person. But that maybe we end up as part of nature, or the universe, which is not so bad. That love does not really die, like energy. Also that weird awareness that you can get when looking at old paintings or photos, that this was a person you would have liked, and been close too, if they were not long dead. I am not religious, being of a pagan bent, but I do believe that death is an open window not an end.

This sounds crazy.....That dogs can't talk to us. They're such a big part of the family and they listen to us all talking, and they're intelligent.....but they can't join in. Sometimes I feel sorry for my dog that she has to remain silent and can't join in the conversations.

I've arrived quite late and haven't RTFT so I'm sure this has been said but... Surely no one ever imagined that Boris was responsible, clever, or grown-up.

You need to watch Counterpart on Starzplay. It's about parallel universes, connected by one cellar in Berlin. They started identical in every way in a lab accident in the 1980s, but as the years passed, tiny differences brought about big changes. So one couple are unhappily married for one reason in universe one, and the same couple in universe two are unhappily married for another reason. One protagonist has gone far in his career in one universe, but is stuck in a boring role in the other universe. One universe had a terrible flu plague, one didn't. One universe has extremely good mobile phones, one doesn't. And so on.

Wheb I was in my 20s... I just couldn't understand any woman of a similar age finding a 40 something silver fox type attractive 😁, let alone want to get jiggly with this ancient specimen...

Now I'm in that age cohort... They're ridiculously attractive and hot men in their 20s are just overgrown pretty teenagers 😂