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.

Love these. That in one hundred years, almost everyone currently alive on the planet will be dead.

Also how advanced we are compared to other mammals (not necessarily in a good way). We were all getting excited that a chimp used a tool whilst humans created a way of filming said chimp and broadcasting it into millions of homes across the world via television. That's my main reason for believing in a divine being (don't come at me atheists!)

@Toloveandtowork absolutely!! I think of this everytime I hear the world give a standing ovation to a dad for doing something that women do every single day. Kids birthday parties for example, in my neck of the woods it's nearly all mums there, you can't tell me all the dads work Saturdays and Sundays.

I can't put it into words properly, but sometimes I get inside my own head and think - I actually exist. I am in control of this body. Would I have come into being if my mum hadn't met my dad? One day I'll die and that will be my time all over and done with. How lucky was I to be born into a loving family in a civilized country rather than into third world poverty or a war torn country. Is reincarnation real and will I exist again?

How interesting. I never knew there was a word for it. I can’t remember how far back I have thought about this, all the billions of people on our planet, past and present with individual lives. Sonder is now added to my vocabulary, thanks.

@Lagattolove

I often get struck with how pointless modern life is. All we need is food, shelter and some company. Yet we live elaborate stressful lives some days I really just don’t get it.

Yes I think this is mine. When you think a sheep, for example, is content to eat grass, sleep, mate and defecate (with perhaps some enjoyable social interaction) and we've managed to create tax forms, planning policy and parking permits. I wouldn't say I'm a nihilist, I like rules top much but if I think about this ^^ for too long I go a bit crazy think how pointless it all is. I studied history at university and the thought that over whelmed me is that we are just ants, essentially. Ants with a great sense of imagination.

@OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow, I think this a lot. It fascinates me. I look at my granddaughter and think if my dh hadn't approached me over 30 years ago and asked if I fancied a game of tennis ( 🤣🤣), she would not be here. So, why is she here ? Was she meant to be ? As a pp said, why am I here ?
The other thing that I find weird is that in 100 years, none of us will be here, so all the minutiae we stress over, is completely pointless. None of it matters.
I've just read a thread about a young man dying too soon. Nothing, for his family and friends, will ever be the same again.
Basically, I refuse to sweat the small stuff.
Great thread, op.

Who else chose to 'Watch' this thread on the title alone? This is fabulous!
Regarding the Terraced house Attics, I grew up in one and yes, we shared the space with at least three others - only stopping at the point where the street naturally rose in incline up a slight hill.
I always think: Everyone on this planet is simply sharing it at this single tiny fraction of a point in it's life.
Everyone we ever see, hear or read about, pass in the street, loved ones, neighbours, anyone we have an altercation with, share an experience with are simply here at this same point in time, by a complete miracle. Just over a century ago, none of us were here.. and in less than a century for most of us, none of us will remain. Though, some scientists believe that the first person to succeed 150 years of life has already been born
Just blows my mind.

That Denning Kruger syndrome is less of a syndrome and more a feature of almost everyone with any kind of power/success

Above message was in reply to your first message. For some reason did not attach.

@ Keladrythesaviour

@DontStopMeNow7

That the universe just goes on forever. Literally doesn’t end. There’s no wall anywhere but if there was one what would be on the other side anyway. Why can’t human brains understand infinity, or nothingness?

The universe probably does come to an end. It’s just that whatever is beyond the edge of the universe does not comply with the laws of space and time and therefore we have no way of being able to comprehend what it could be like.

Compared to the past we really have everything we could ever want and need, and yet we are all still miserable and want more.

That the world doesn't revolve around me. I used to be so self conscious. Was obsessed with having my hair a certain way and not going out without make up and so on. Sometime during my late twenties/early thirties it just hit me that literally nobody gave a shit about me or what I look like. It was a very nice liberating feeling.

Also hotels have always blown my mind a little. All of those people with various lives and stories all in the same building doing different things. Crazy.

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.

That I've known my dp longer than I knew my DM.
I'm 49, been with do 31 years.
And yet I only knew my DM 27 years.

It popped in to my head a few years back.
Really upset me at the time.

That we have unconscious minds and we know ourselves quite poorly. Our reading of reality is what we can consciously experience/feel/know/perceive. There is much more going on than that, but we can't know it because of the limitations of our perception and our conscious mind.

Or put more simply, we think we're seeing and experiencing the full picture when actually we see a fraction.

Death.
The infinites variety of human beings - I can’t even make up a new person and yet nature churns our a new one each second
Space. Obvs
The shortness of human time on earth
An inability to conceive of time longer than 2000 years ago (I can just about get back to the Egyptians). The dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. Millions! Try imagining that!
The inability to climb inside someone else’s head and feel their pain and joy
The unknowability of others
The fact that we are just mammals
The noisy chatter inside the heads of not just all humans but all life
The unknowability of trees
The small trace we leave on the planet - a short lingering memory for a generation or two and then just a name or a rocking chair or one photo or a painting on the wall
People taking pleasure in others pain
How wicked some people can be
That romance novels and swooning films are just the human mating ritual dressed up - a bit of monkey rutting for the propogation of the species
That you only live in the present and that your future old age will feel as real as this moment and once you are in it this moment will be gone - it’s a thought that speeds life along

That humans think nuclear weapons are a good idea
random honour systems - people not stealing milk bottles from doorsteps
How brief our time on earth
That our perception of the world is determined largely by our biology - flies see multiple versions of the same things, dogs navigate by smell

@Squiff70

Another one here baffled by the size of space. I can't even comprehend how far it is to our own moon and the thought of the size of the universe - which is expanding - just blows my tiny, insignificant little mind. What the hell is it even expanding into? It can't be nothingness because surely that doesn't exist? Or is it sort of 'blending' with another universe and if so, how does it differ from this one? How many universes are there and why? What's beyond them? Whilst being far too massive for comprehension, I know none of these questions will ever be answered in my lifetime and in all probability, will never be answered 'correctly' whilst humanity exists on Earth. We will die out not knowing the answers to life's biggest mysteries.

Why are NHS nurses paid a fraction more than supermarket workers when they've done years of studying and training and have 100 times the responsibility and stress? They literally keep people alive and ensure those at the end of their lives let go as peacefully and as pain-free as possible. I'm not a nurse but did used to work in a supermarket. I'll never understand that.

I can't comprehend how millions of humans have died over the course of time and yet nobody living, regardless of religion, beliefs or spirituality, actually knows what happens when/after we die. Do we have souls? Do they leave our bodies and if so, where do they go and what happens to them? Do we as an entity just cease to exist? Or does something else happen that nobody has ever even considered?

Christ almighty, this is some deep shit for a Thursday morning!

Is the nurses thing true though? The Royal College of Nursing reckons the average salary for an NHS nurse is £33,384, whereas the news this week was Tesco staff will see an increase to £10.50 an hour. For a 40 hour week that’s £21,840 - so a nurse gets 50% more (and I’m sure a better pension, training and promotion opportunities). I’m not saying it’s brilliantly paid, but they’re paid significantly more than a supermarket worker. The problem is the de-skilling of roles and staff and the proliferation of ‘care workers’ rather than nurses, who are paid nearer to supermarket workers.

@Katkincake

Love all these and had similar thoughts myself, especially the people you see all having their own lives going on.

I learnt something recently at the grand age of 45 that made me stop & think.
I knew that tides are controlled by the moon’s gravity & move in and out in sequence down coastlines. But what happens to do this is that the water stays in one place pulled continuously towards the moon and the earth rotates under this fixed hump. I never thought about the physics of it till then.

No matter how many times I think of this or know this, it still blows my mind

Being with someone for 10 years, married for 7. Having have 2 children with that person, who was there with you when they were born. But then to have absolutely no idea ,when they come to your house years later ( after swapping children halfway between each home for most of their childhood) , whether they drink tea or coffee and how they like it. If I saw him in the street ,in a place I wasn't expecting to see him, I am not sure I would immediately know who he was. So sad really.

You have a party wall?! That sounds fun where can I get one?

Sometimes I look at all the people in a crowd and think how complex each one of them is and what full histories each of them have. And how long it would take to really understand everyone in that crowd.

Just how long ago things like ancient Egypt was, and really, really wanting to time travel there. I expect apart from obvious differences, human nature and interaction will be almost identical!

Nobody I know can name all of their eight great grandparents, people who were walking around like us a century ago, and who are fundamental to our existence. All of this striving and worrying and yearning, and then nothing.

That some people can just kill/hurt others without a second thought & it has no effect on them.

This more so since "murder documentaries" became a big thing on Netflix etc. For example, Richard Ramirez. The things he did to people, how the hell can someone be programmed like that & have the ability to hurt others. It's a scary thought that we're living amongst these people.

I read in the news yesterday of a house fire that has killed two children which was a arson attack, how do this people act normal after doing such dreadful things.