05-18-2021, 01:11 PM
(05-18-2021, 07:55 AM)Patrick Wrote: I am not going to do a disservice to Don or Carla by trying to analyze them. We can barely have any chance of understanding ourselves, let alone others.
I completely agree.
Not to mention the idea of "walking a mile in someone else's moccasins." We don't know the details of anyone's life, the inner details especially—even of our closest friends or family. We can comprehend little beyond surface stuff, or vague impressions based on intuition or even a little extra-sensory perception. Imagine how complex your (no one in particular) own inner world is, the feelings, the thoughts, the subconscious labyrinthine entanglements, the life of memories and experiences. I personally could not begin to put my life into words and do it any justice at all. I think this is one reason why fiction is so compelling, because, like some poetry does with specific feelings, it somehow in compressed terms opens up a channel to an inkling of the whole picture behind a life—but still, it is only an inkling.