\u2018I\nknow how you feel\u2019, we say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But\nwe don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\nknow how WE feel, at least approximately, or we remember how WE felt when we\nwent through an experience with the same name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will never ever know how you feel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And\nyet it comforts us, this shared sense or common idea of the human experience,\nthis rubbing against each other\u2019s pain, or grief, or suffering, or joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although\nwe\u2019re always talking about subjective and truly personal experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s\na really complicated and even baffling thing, this whole \u2018knowing how you\nfeel\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nknow how depression or elation felt when we went through it, but we don\u2019t know\nhow it feels to have a different skin color than we have, or how it feels to be\nborn in a different country with different parents and a different nationality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And\nI wouldn\u2019t even know how it feels to be Dutch: there\u2019s no distinct feeling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nhave no idea how it feels to be a dad (although I have a daughter) or a\ncopywriter (although I created advertising campaigns most of my life) or a\nwhite privileged male (I guess that\u2019s supposed to be a sense of superiority,\nbut how does THAT feel?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where\nexactly do you feel your political preference, and how about the physical\nsensation of being a vegan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nmakes a feeling typically female?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where\ncan you find the actual sentiment of being an Asian, and how does it feel,\nenergetically?<\/p>\n\n\n\n How\ncome we can be SO sure about what to call a specific sensation in our bodies,\nif nobody has ever been able to point it out directly, within us, and we simply\nlearned all that stuff by listening to other people, cooking up our own\ninterpretations?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why\ndoes something we feel means jealousy, and another thing hope?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nseems to me this is just another example of all the things we\u2019ve made up about\nthe workings of life, and then forgot that\u2019s what we did in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\nsolidify the flowing energy that we experience from moment to moment and make\nit into real things, scary and important things, and then we start comparing or\nhating or fleeing or longing, constantly managing those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nmorning I felt like shit, and now I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nhope you\u2019re doing well right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your\nkind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018I know how you feel\u2019, we say. But we don\u2019t. We know how WE feel, at least approximately, or we remember how WE felt when we went through an experience with the same name. I will never ever know how you feel. And yet it comforts us, this shared sense or common idea of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,116,113,103],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30223"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30226,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30223\/revisions\/30226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}