Life is so interesting. You grow up and you learn countless lessons, make countless mistakes, experience endless obstacles and suffering. You become conscious and you realize that’s exactly what everyone before you did. Nothing you’ve learned is new. Sure it’s groundbreaking and reality shattering to you, but to anyone else who came before, it’s old news, and to anyone who comes after, they won’t appreciate it until they learn it for themselves. It’s so strange. We’re social beings meant to live in community and build relationships but it’s as if our experience of life is solitary, and that’s the only way it can be. We are meant to experience our own journey, feel every heartbreak, every triumph, every harsh and life-altering lesson is meant to be lived through by no one else but ourselves. No one else will truly be able to relate or understand the waves of emotions that have washed over us. No other soul will be able to feel the incredible joy that was thrust upon us. Only you. Only me. I find it unfair that we overcome these trials and tribulations, gaining battle scars that embed wisdom in our souls that only we can benefit from. Sure, others appreciate our stories and can attempt to dodge similar mistakes but those mistakes will still be made. They’ll still need to be made. Because that is how wisdom is gained. It’s only through those scars, that were inflicted by fighting those battles firsthand that we earn those invaluable life lessons.
But perhaps my view is too pessimistic. Perhaps, that’s not the whole story and it’s not quite as solitary as I’m making it out to be. Perhaps, yes, we can only become wise by overcoming obstacles on our own, but maybe sharing those stories with others who made the same mistakes or who experienced similar disappointments can be the real treasure. Maybe that bond, the one that allows us to see another person just as clearly as we see ourselves is something beautiful that comes out of the darkness. Maybe wisdom isn’t meant to be shared and shouted to others as billboards or warning signs. Maybe instead, it’s meant to be a small treasure shared during intimate moments that tells us we’re not alone. Maybe it’s more meaningful that way. Maybe holding each other’s pains, mistakes, shames and joys gives them more meaning, even after we thought we derived all the wisdom we could from them.
moodybreadcrumbs 