Others

You never know what you have until it's gone. I used to live by this, trying to appreciate everything that came into my life. But, I've realized that people will not reciprocate this. Recently, I read a book on Existentialism. It spoke of Sartre's view on others. How everyone is an "other," they are people which you cannot purely know, as you cannot view their inner thoughts. Essentially, others serve the purpose similar to everyday objects, as all we need to do is react. We walk around a tree the way we walk around a conversation. This made me think of how easy it is to objectify others, to use them for gain. We use people, guided by our reactions. And I think once we realize that people are metaphysically the same as objects to us, it is harder to appreciate them. People become less complex, because we no longer see them as minded-people, but simply a piece in our own minds. (This may seem degrading, but keep reading). If every other person in the world is an other, what makes the people special to us, more important than strangers? They are still objects, right? But familiarity changes everything. And the more you become familiar with something you start take it for granted. Interestingly, when something good touches our lives once, we remember it clearly. But when something good continues to touch our lives, well, it blurs together and we tend to look at the negative. We forget the good. And maybe we forget the good, when we objectify them, because as Sartre says, we cannot prove their are minded creatures. But the people close to us, they are not objects, even though I can't prove their minds. They may bring negatives, but we must remember to appreciate their beauty. There will always be weeds in a garden of flowers. In order to appreciate a relationship, we must neglect the natural instinct to objectify.