Forrest shared the meaning of this newly-coined word with his mom and dad and me yesterday when we were gathered around the breakfast table at home.
"Do you think Davy is too young to understand it?" I asked.
"Davy would get it," Forrest answered with assurance and sent me the link.
So I got up early on this Christmas Morning, and added it to your Art Studio.
sonder
n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.Narrated, written, directed, edited and coined by John Koenig the video SONDER expands the definition.
"Sonder. You are the main character—the protagonist—the star at the center of your own unfolding story.
You're surrounded by your supporting cast: friends and family hanging in your immediate orbit. Scattered a little further out, a network of acquaintances who drift in and out of contact over the years.
But there in the background, faint and out of focus, are the extras. The random passersby. Each living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
They carry on invisibly around you, bearing the accumulated weight of their own ambitions, friends, routines, mistakes, worries, triumphs and inherited craziness.
When your life moves on to the next scene, theirs flickers in place, wrapped in a cloud of backstory and inside jokes and characters strung together with countless other stories you'll never be able to see. That you'll never know exists. In which you might appear only once. As an extra sipping coffee in the background. As a blur of traffic passing on the highway. As a lighted window at dusk."
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for. Follow the project, give feedback, suggest an emotion you need a word for, or just tell me about your day.
http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows...
You can listen to a wonderful talk by John Koenig explaining his work on TED talks