I have one, you have one, everybody does.
We as individuals have our own worlds that we live in, our own unique way of seeing things. That's not news, most everyone knows that. But something I thought about recently made me think a little differently about me and my own particular world, and then of course, it made me think about everyone else's world too.
If you look up the word "unique" in a dictionary, the definition reads something like this: "Existing as the only one or sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics" (thank you "dictionary.com"). Now think about that for just a minute. The "only one" or "sole example". "Solitary in type or characteristics". That means that each and every one of us is truly the only one of our kind, there are no others exactly as we are. Sure, we're all human, and we share genetic factors among us, but even so, our minds are not at all alike, each of us is "unique" in that aspect.
Remember my last post, about religion? This uniqueness we all have is another reason why I think that we are so diverse in our religious beliefs. None of us see things exactly the same way, so that's why I said I thought it would be better for all of us if we just did our own thing, and left everyone else alone.
What I'm getting at here is that each and every one of us is alone in our thoughts, and we are therefore alone in our perceptions. No one else can ever see our lives as we do, just as we can never see anyone else's life as they see it. We each inhabit our own unique "world", and as we travel through life, even if we have others that walk closely beside us, experiencing the same things, we are still left to perceive it all through our own eyes, and take from those experiences what we decide to take. We can never know anyone as well as we know ourselves, nor can we say we can feel something exactly the same way someone else does.
But, again, none of this is news. Everyone knows they are their own person. But what if this "own person" thing extends into the spiritual realm? What if, when we leave these bodies, our spirit is also unique? Makes sense, right? The point is, it's not just here, on earth, that we are unique. When we leave these bodies and revert back to our "energy" existence, having all of time and space at our fingertips (at least I hope so), we are still the only one of our kind, in the entire universe. There is no other creature exactly like me, none exactly like you. We will still exist as a unique entity, experiencing everything in a unique way.
That puts everything in "perspective" for me. It tells me that in truth, I have no one to answer to but myself, no one at all. Even if there are more advanced or more evolved beings out there, "gods" so to speak, they can't see through my eyes, and even if they can or could, they are still viewing what I see through their own perceptual "filters", so again, they are not truly seeing things exactly like ME. I choose for myself what I choose to see, I choose what I want to learn, and I choose how I want to live, whether here on earth, or "out there" after this physical life is over. I cannot say that anyone else chose it for me. I can't say that anyone else is to blame for what happens to me, I can't say that anyone else "made" me do something. But I can also say that only I can assess my own life, only I can say if I've accomplished what I should have, or for that matter, I'm the only one that can choose what I WANT to accomplish. No one else's opinion on that, ultimately, really matters. Because I'm the only one I have to be comfortable with.
When you really begin to step back, and think about your existence from the viewpoint that only YOU can have, you begin to see that a lot of what you do to impress other people is completely unnecessary. We humans have this tendency to want to be like each other, we want to "fit in", it seems natural to do so, it makes us feel better to "belong" to something. But when you think about how unique you are, fitting in seems like the opposite of what should be done. Maybe what we should all be doing is taking our own "route", living how we want to live, and not be worrying about what anyone else thinks of it. I know this enters the world of "self worth", but if you know you are the only one, then there's really no one else that you can compare to, no one else is better, worse, or anything in between. We all exist. And that's it.
It's a pretty big leap out of "normal" thinking, to see oneself in that light. It means forgetting about anything anyone else is doing, forgetting about what anyone else is telling you you should be doing, and forging your own path, just because you CAN. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to others at all, it just means that you should not just do whatever someone tells you to do just because they are someone you "look up" to. When you're a kid, of course you should listen to your parents, they have lots of great insight on how life "works", and what are good ideas for things to do, and what may not be. They can teach you about things that you haven't been able to experience yet. Sometimes they might seem like they are overly restrictive, but parents tend to do that, because they are aware of the dangers of life, and want to protect you from them. But it doesn't last forever, and when you are grown, you can then make all the "important" decisions without anyone else's input. Until then however, you ARE still making decisions for yourself, in how you deal with the situations you are in, in how you feel about them, and how you react to them. So it's no different than how adults think either. We each have to live with ourselves on how we decide to feel, because everything we do is a choice, even our emotions.
And sure, there's lots of decisions in life that we don't make for ourselves, but I believe everything is a step along a path, the path we've chosen to take. It may not always be pleasant, we may not always like where we are or what we HAVE to do, but we CAN choose not to feel badly about it. We can choose to see things positively, we can choose to let things go, and we can choose to take opportunities to learn from things we see as mistakes. And no one else can ever take that choice away from us.
Being unique is the best thing in the universe, there's freedom in it. Knowing I'm the only one is comforting, and I'm glad to be my own world. I hope you're glad to be in yours too.
I am so in love with this new way of posting, keep it up!
ReplyDelete