Delusions

A long time ago, I said that the world doesn't stop so you can grieve. Time has no such sympathy or compassion...the world, and life, both go on.




While there is some truth to that, it fails to paint the right picture. Colors are missing.

The world - our world - is nothing more and nothing less than the sum of our experiences. Our memories of the past and consciousness of the present overlap with those of others, they combine and intertwine, and most importantly, overlap, to form the world we perceive. We go from being born an individual to becoming part of a family, from isolated to part of a relationship and eventually a community, and so on. If you remove memory and experience and consciousness, our world reduces to a floating pile of rock and water and irrelevance.

So on the one hand, our actions and lives have no meaning and hold no power over our world...in a literal, scientific sense.

But the more important side, the palette of color over the black and white, is that when a consciousness is lost the whole -must- be affected, however small it may seem.

When one voice is lost in the choir, the harmony is lessened, if you're looking for a decent analogy.

When a loss occurs, it ripples through the overlaps in our consciousness...for a moment, particularly for those nearest the loss, the world -does- stop. Time -does- pause and take note. They have to - without our perception of them, their existence means nothing as well.

I suppose there is some comfort in that, and however much truth lies in the idea that our lives don't matter in the grand scheme...well, if the idea that grief is felt outside our own little corner of existence is a delusion, there are far worse delusions to entertain.

- C