Sonder
Recently I learned a new word. This post goes by the title of that new vocabulary word, which is Sonder (sahn-derr). Sonder is the understanding that other people have lives, and that there are events happening in others' lives that we may have no way of knowing about. The understanding that others' experience the stresses of an eccentric and demanding life just like we do. This is the understanding that there is an entire invisible world of emotions, routines, friends, and worries is happening all around us at all times, and that we are merely one piece in a sprawling anthill; of which, we might only appear in an other's life once, maybe as a blurred face in a crowd, or just a voice in a grocery store over the loud speaker. Everyone has a story, and we come and go from (potentially) thousands of people's lives on a daily basis. We're all like raindrops falling in the same storm, yet there is no way of us ever coming into contact w...