On Swallowing Pride

Here're the words that have been bouncing around in my head lately: Swallow your pride.

Everyone I've ever seen -- every janitor, every cashier, every homeless guy muttering to himself -- knows countless things I do not know, has had experiences I can not even imagine, has felt things I have never felt before. I have no doubt that there have and will be people who will experience a depth of happiness I will never experience, shoulder tragedies that would destroy me, fall more deeply in love, and so on.

Every thought I've ever had has in all likelihood been thought by someone else, and not just that, but thought more clearly and with more elegance. Noam Chomsky can articulate the injustices of the world better than thoughts about these injustices can even form in my mind. The same could be said about any subject ever: There will always be many people who can say things about their area of expertise better than I can even think them.

This is amazing. It's amazing to think that, whenever I am in the presence of a stranger, I am in the presence of someone who can teach me something. And I am in the presence of strangers all the time. In fact, there are millions of strangers briefly coexisting all around the world, their lives intersecting for just a moment, a moment filled with possibility.

-Me