small world syndrome

You know how when crazy coincidences happen and people attribute it to 'small world?' I disagree with that. It's a huge world, so huge I sometimes fail to grasp, and--population wise--constantly growing.

We're the small ones. There's this feeling I get from staring out at the ocean that I can best describe as a glorious insignificance. It's like this beautiful realization that in the bigger picture, my life is pretty tiny. In my lifetime, I'll try not to consume more than I need and I'll hopefully help people ad do some good ad maybe it'll even out. Maybe all my positive contributes will cancel out what I take away. But looking at the human race broadly, my impact will be pretty small.

Some people may fall into a depression of sorts upon realizing this, feel lost in a sea of purposelessness. Like in  a book called Nothing, where this group of seventh graders are faced with the idea that nothing matters and are not able to live with it. They go to incredible lengths to prove to themselves and each other that something in life has meaning.

What people fail to appreciate, in commenting that it's a small world, is how naturally interconnected we are I feel like one of the biggest failings of the human race is to put things in perspective. Like, if we just saw that throwing your toxic garbage in a landfill that leeches into the groundwater that goes to  the rivers where the fish we eat swim, would we be this thoughtless?

So, to me, it's not that strange when it turns out that my dad and my friend's dad went to the same highschool in a small town on the other side of the country and other weird connections reveal themselves.

It's not a small world; sometimes it just feels like it.