Vicariously

If we could, just for a moment, live vicariously through someone else,  

to witness all the trauma in the blink of an eye, every pang of suffering, the harrowing glimpses of all that has eaten away at one’s soul, 

to feel the seething rage of all the hatred, frustration, and anger over the years pulse through our veins, 

but to also experience all the elation and joy someone has ever experienced that has given them light and a reason to live,

to allow all the love, affection, and compassion warm, caress, and make tender our heart,

our experience of life as we know it would no longer be confined to the selfish boundaries of what we define as “you” or “I”; if we wholly internalize the identity and consciousness of another person as we would if we were them, we can experience life as “us.” We would subsequently achieve an ultimate form of empathy where conflict ceases to exist. 

This will never happen. But perhaps that is the point. Perhaps that is the source of magic in human connection—this tumultuous journey of simultaneously discovering our own identity and that of others solely through trial and tribulation. All of our foibles, our idiosyncrasies, and our sins constitute these jagged interstices that deform the light of an unadulterated, unfettered truth and understanding of humanity. It could be that we’re not meant to comprehend such a truth, and we’re just not meant to truly understand each other. It could be that, despite all the suffering, death, and strife it causes, this need to overcome dissension is all that gives us meaning, and all that gives us a reason to love.