I experience the feeling of extreme isolation sometimes. I think it happens on account of my only-childness (no siblings to share with), my life’s experience (no other immigrant, Lebanese, Tap Dancer that was mentored by Gregory Hines around to compare experiences), and my travel (always moving, rarely staying still long enough to plant roots).
I know the actual isolation isn’t true, but the feeling is. I’ve learned something that helps combat the feeling. The realization that there are a handful of people in the world that I trust know me.
This poses a question: Can someone ever really know someone else?
My short answer is, yes. Although I’m sure philosophers and neuroscientists will argue the point. I will offer this.
If trusting that someone knows you, and cares about knowing you, can combat the feeling of isolation, shouldn’t we at least engage in the pursuit of knowing one another? If knowing one another is actually impossible, maybe engaging in the pursuit, with curiosity and generosity of spirit is enough to bring us together in a way that is fruitful?
I’ve experienced moments when I met someone and thought to myself, “hm, I think I know you.” This was not in the, “do you come around here often, you seem familiar,” kind of way. Rather, it was a resonance of something deeper. What if that deeper resonance of who we are is what we are actually searching for, in ourselves, and in one another?
Wouldn’t it be lovely to share in those moments of discovery, the knowing of one another, together?