This is Me
I look at google maps, and I can point out the exact point and place of the street of my house, down to which side and what part of the horseshoe it's on. I can wave my hand at the whole map. "This is Cupertino." Point. "This is me."
I look at a map of the world. "This is the world." And I can find the general vicinity of the San Francisco Bay, my clumsy finger taking out nearly all of the south bay as it smashes down into the paper. "This is me."
I can zoom out as far as science can possibly take us, into a velvet darkness with pinpricks as stars. "This is the known universe." And point vaguely at one of the arms on the spiral of the milky way, and say, in the most general of general senses, with my fingertip resting on the breadth of several solar systems, "this is me."
See that 16% slice? That pale peach colored narrow little sliver? That is me. If I squeeze it between my fingers, it is this small. I'll wave my arms over everything else. It is that big. Frick, looking at this graph makes me feel so isolated and and small. Within this small sector of 16% there you can further split the hairs; agnostic, atheist, secular humanist, etc etc. It makes me realize that there are very few people who see the world even remotely similar to the way I do.
We've been taught all our lives that it's important to be unique, to have our own views. I agree; it is pretty critical to know who you are in this great big world of ours. I have no problems knowing that no one sees the world exactly as I do. In fact, it's pretty cool that I'm one of a kind... just like everyone else.
I've always appreciated my perspective in life. It was like a corner with lots of pillows; a comforting haven, all mine. But seeing it laid out like this is pretty (I don't want to say disturbing) unsettling. Maybe I've just read too many books/articles and had too many conversations about this topic in the last week to digest, but I have a really hard time even imagining why people would believe the things they do. This means that more half the people I run into will, at the core, be basely incomprehensible to me.
I'm not giving up my ideas, my thoughts, my values, my opinions.
And I'm not going to try to make it a them vs. me thing, because we're all human as well. Same computer, different OS, same programs. (But one in three? Seriously? That's how much of our food comes from honeybees. Pretty freaking big deal.)
But this makes me feel so isolated.
Thanks statistics, for your very effective reality checks.
I look at a map of the world. "This is the world." And I can find the general vicinity of the San Francisco Bay, my clumsy finger taking out nearly all of the south bay as it smashes down into the paper. "This is me."
I can zoom out as far as science can possibly take us, into a velvet darkness with pinpricks as stars. "This is the known universe." And point vaguely at one of the arms on the spiral of the milky way, and say, in the most general of general senses, with my fingertip resting on the breadth of several solar systems, "this is me."
See that 16% slice? That pale peach colored narrow little sliver? That is me. If I squeeze it between my fingers, it is this small. I'll wave my arms over everything else. It is that big. Frick, looking at this graph makes me feel so isolated and and small. Within this small sector of 16% there you can further split the hairs; agnostic, atheist, secular humanist, etc etc. It makes me realize that there are very few people who see the world even remotely similar to the way I do.
We've been taught all our lives that it's important to be unique, to have our own views. I agree; it is pretty critical to know who you are in this great big world of ours. I have no problems knowing that no one sees the world exactly as I do. In fact, it's pretty cool that I'm one of a kind... just like everyone else.
I've always appreciated my perspective in life. It was like a corner with lots of pillows; a comforting haven, all mine. But seeing it laid out like this is pretty (I don't want to say disturbing) unsettling. Maybe I've just read too many books/articles and had too many conversations about this topic in the last week to digest, but I have a really hard time even imagining why people would believe the things they do. This means that more half the people I run into will, at the core, be basely incomprehensible to me.
I'm not giving up my ideas, my thoughts, my values, my opinions.
And I'm not going to try to make it a them vs. me thing, because we're all human as well. Same computer, different OS, same programs. (But one in three? Seriously? That's how much of our food comes from honeybees. Pretty freaking big deal.)
But this makes me feel so isolated.
Thanks statistics, for your very effective reality checks.