In relation to verbal or written stories, I believe in the idea of “one story.” We are all a part of each others’ stories, every person we come into contact with, even those we never meet, affect our lives daily and eternally. Stories are recordings of the lives we once had, do have, and what we wish our lives to be. If we are all on this human journey together, existing solely but co-existing with one another, there is an individual story for every person. Thinking realistically, not everyone will be the President of the United States or be a movie star, so therefore not every life can be overwhelmingly original by our societal terms. But to some, being a mother and creating new life can be the most rewarding, fulfilling, and original roles in life. It really all depends on one’s own perception of life.
However, even if our thoughts are original to ourselves, they might not necessarily be original to everyone else, or had been preconceived by someone else. But since we cannot meet every person in the world and know every thought they have ever thought, then there is a margin for error to think we have original thoughts.
Author Chuck Klosterman puts it this way:
“There are two ways to look at life. Actually, that’s not accurate; I suppose there are thousands of ways to look at life. But I tend to dwell on two of them. The first view is that nothing stays the same and that nothing is inherently connected, and that the only driving force in anyone’s life is entropy. The second is that everything pretty much stays the same (more or less) and that everything is completely connected, even if we don’t realize it.”
― Chuck Klosterman, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
^^^^ (A really good book, by the way.)
I tend to agree that on the course of humanity nothing has really changed. We are born, search for meaning and happiness or not, then we die. Whether or not we have original thoughts from one person to the next is mostly irrelevant to our existence. I am not saying that one should not waste thinking on unoriginal thoughts but that our thoughts can’t hold that much weight to the person sitting next to us if they don’t agree or don’t have similar ideas. Like I said, it’s all about your perception and how you view your life, my life, and the world population around us.
I love that dude! In another book he has, which I haven't gotten around to reading, he describes the differences in the characteristics of your archenemy and your nemesis--and it's just really interesting.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like your perception. I do like to think that it really doesn't matter cuz we're all just humans--born, live, die: we all do it, so we can't be that different from one another. And even though experiences are different and perceptions of the world are different, we're all bound to cross thoughts eventually in some way or another, so it's not technically "original," but may be original to just yourself.