Thoughts for the day

It only took me ten minutes to get home from work today. Normally it takes three times that. What a rich city LA would be if only there were no traffic! On the other hand, maybe LA is only as interesting as it is because of the traffic. If it only took ten minutes most of the time to get from Hollywood to downtown, maybe LA would just be one great suburb, like Almaden, where Costco is 4 miles away from home but we go there every week anyway.

I recommended a friend for a job and she got it! I’m pleased as punch, as they (used to) say.

Today things were so busy at work I forgot how sick I’ve been feeling.* This makes me very happy. I’ve been working two months now and if I can get that busy it means things are picking up.

Do you ever wonder how different the world is from the way you see it in your head? How big is the discrepancy between your understanding of yourself, and the way strangers or friends see you? Perhaps there is one solid world that everyone else understands and I’m the only one who thinks it’s different; after all, people have sometimes told me so. Or perhaps there is no world at all, only billions and billions of separate realities that somehow coexist.

I wrote this earlier when I was feeling thoughtful. [The original post was restricted, but I’ve since made it public.] Then I realized I already know the answer. Of course the world is only made of every person’s understanding of it — physical laws and etc aside — but that doesn’t mean we’re all so separate. We all ask the same questions, we all find our own answers. Even though our answers are never completely alike, parts of them are, and these parts are enough to bind us all together.

Each of those parts which exist within us are sprouted from the distinct blend of tendencies, desires, fears, and instincts that make up each person. Who can say what makes one person religious, and another not? One freedom-loving, another devoted to order and boundaries? Why do some people adore mushrooms and others shudder at the thought of them? The creation process of all these characteristics and beliefs is unique to each individual. But the end results are shared among many. No one else has ever arrived at being a Democrat in quite the way you have, but that doesn’t mean you’re the only Democrat in the world.

The marvelous thing is when you have some part of you that you thought was just yours, and you discover it in someone else. It means that even though they understand the world in one way, and you understand it another, through that part or those parts that you share, you can see a little bit of their world and they can see a little bit of yours. In that way there is understanding. In that way, we can say that we do all live in the same world — it’s just that it’s spread out through all the people who live in it.

*Don’t worry, it’s just typical winter stuff. Funny-feeling throat, kind of warm and headachy, that kind of thing. I don’t want it to get any worse though.
