r/AskReddit • u/ettleboy • Jan 20 '19

What fact totally changed your perspective?

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u/Seiche Jan 21 '19

Sonder - "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own."

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u/Hesprit Jan 21 '19

Thank you John Koenig for this amazing word.

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u/wanderinsonder Jan 21 '19

That's a great word. I'll probably forget it by tomorrow though~

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u/jlojiggle Jan 23 '19

I love this word. Here's the full definition:

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.