Personally, I have seen nothing exemplary. Neither good nor bad. Bad - taking a shower. Good - lying in bed, watching StarCraft.
Out of the ordinary events would probably be being boiled alive, and having sex, I guess.
I don't feel that way, personally.
We, as human beings, have been able to create technology that can show us the brilliant and humongous stars and planets. That can see billions of light years, not only over distance, but billions of years in the past. I have read so many things that show to enginuity of humanity. How people figured out how gravity works and how quantum mechanics pops things into being from nowhere all the time, right beneat our feet.
And art. Humans have created so many incredible pieces of art. Paintings, photos, music and stories. Things that can move you to tears or make you laugh. But either way they make you feel alive, like you're really here in this world surrounding by all this beauty.
There's this passage from a Virginia Woolf book that I find absolutely stunning.
"The house was left. The house was deserted. It stood as a silent sentinel against the relentless march of time, its once vibrant walls now weathered and worn, bearing the scars of countless seasons. No longer did laughter echo through its halls, nor did warmth emanate from its hearth. Instead, it remained a hollow shell of memories, a monument to days gone by. Nature reclaimed its territory, creeping ivy clinging to the faded façade, and weeds pushing through the cracks in the stoic stone foundation. Yet, amidst the decay, a faint whisper lingered, a ghostly echo of lives once lived within its walls, a reminder of the fleeting nature of existence."
And in my personal life there have been a few incredible moments too. Being at a music festival with my first girlfriend, taking a boat ride with her and her falling asleep in my arms that evening, laying on the grass with my previous girlfriend near a lake with the sunset colouring ripples in the water orange and yellow.
I have seen a great many truly beautiful things.
But they do feel much, much rarer than the bad stuff. The constant pain and hollowness. Wanting to scream out because it hurts so bad. Feeling that the only way you can make it end is to no longer exist. All of the years I've spent feeling terrible about myself. Wasting time, doing nothing. Feeling disconnected and like I'm looking out over an indistinctive grey blob of a world.
And I know I'm still, comparatively, one of the lucky ones. That's not even taking into account all of the people being blown apart in wars or the innocent people starving to death in Gaza right now.
So, yeah, that's pretty much why that line resonates with me. There's true beauty in the world and I've been lucky enough to see it sometimes. But sadly I've seen a lot more bad stuff and I feel it a lot more too.
