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Description
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Sonder n: the awareness that everyone has a story that you will never see
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — “You are the main character—the protagonist—the...
Created for the Synthography Sentiments 2024 contest.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows names many of the feelings in modern life that are unnamed: I remember sitting alone in a cafe in New York many years ago. I was a foreigner, I didn't know anyone. I sat drinking my coffee and watching the people of the world go by. I started making up stories of the lives of the people I saw. After a while I realised a floating sense of of sadness as I realised I would never know these people, never know their actual stories. That my sadness, like the monster in the picture, would only be able to anxiously stare at closed window of the lives passing me by. I've felt this way many times since. Perhaps the most profound was talking to my daughter about her experiences at school and realising that she already, at 5, had a whole other life I, as her parent, would never be a part of.

Description
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Sonder n: the awareness that everyone has a story that you will never see
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — “You are the main character—the protagonist—the...
Created for the Synthography Sentiments 2024 contest.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows names many of the feelings in modern life that are unnamed: I remember sitting alone in a cafe in New York many years ago. I was a foreigner, I didn't know anyone. I sat drinking my coffee and watching the people of the world go by. I started making up stories of the lives of the people I saw. After a while I realised a floating sense of of sadness as I realised I would never know these people, never know their actual stories. That my sadness, like the monster in the picture, would only be able to anxiously stare at closed window of the lives passing me by. I've felt this way many times since. Perhaps the most profound was talking to my daughter about her experiences at school and realising that she already, at 5, had a whole other life I, as her parent, would never be a part of.