Nestled in my seat at the back of the 737, I sat listening to a podcast. It’s been ages, and my tastes are always changing so it could have been any of a number of things. As I sat this flight half asleep, a figure walked past to the restroom.
I’d been aware this famous person was aboard, but the thought hadn’t crossed my mind he would come to the rear to use a restroom. As he neared a feeling everyone is familiar with hit me, excitement. But he stopped with a look towards me that gave away my chagrin. I must have moved, or stared, or shuffled.
Or, maybe it’s innate in us all to feel the power of those things. And to know when those feelings aren’t coming from ourselves. For someone famous, encountering those external emotional outbursts must be common enough to make sense of them.
He scowled and I resumed my half sleep, holding on to the subtleties of the experience. I have no interest in fame or famous people. I think some of the amazing things people achieve are because they are forged in that energy and it helps them, but I think it can also be the headwinds, the tied shoestrings, the stripping of gifts.
It’s abundantly clear to me that our thoughts, conscious and subconscious are absolutely powerful, and that they matter. Sometimes I find myself so wrapped in my own experience that I forget just how substantial the idea that 8 billion other experiences are happening, all at once, barely touching one another.
Those famous people connect us. It’s a great burden. Not one I care for.
But I have to wonder, how many of us know we are sharing feelings, how powerful they are, how consequential they are? Is it just ignorance that people could miss the waves they feel? They just ignore it? Or is it a lie? That people don’t want to admit they can pickup on others feelings?
Fill the Glass 
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