our accidentally ignorant existence

it is hard to recognize that other people have their own individual lives. all that exists is all that you know, and the people that you know are just accessories to their own reality.
it is hard to imagine that they, too, have families, jobs, hobbies. you see them walking down sidewalks, sitting in libraries, standing in lines in fast-food restaurants, completely oblivious to the reality of their existence.
you don't know that the lady in red at the table next to you in the coffee shop is also a poet, a published poet, working on her third collection. she is also a single mother, trying to find love again but finding it impossible. you don't know that she is a high school english teacher in a school full of underprivileged teens; where gang violence and pregnancies are normal. but here she is smiling at the table next to you in the coffee shop, almost only a figment of your imagination.
you don't know that the little boy sitting in the back seat of the car beside you is in foster care. his mother and father both were addicted to heroine, and this is his first week with his foster parents. he sits on his hands and bites his tongue, uncomfortable and afraid but trying not to show it. he looks out the window and into your eyes, but unlike any other kid, he doesn't smile or wave or stick his tongue out. he bites the inside of his cheek and doesn't look away until the light turns green and your car pulls away.
you see people every day and have no idea that they also have a life. there are people that they cherish, there are things that they love, there are foods that they hate, there are places that they never want to visit again. you see them smile, you hear their voice, but you can only recognize the part of their existence that you experience. that is absolutely, amazingly and beautifully absurd; there are a billion lives going on at once, waiting to bump into each other, only to completely overlook one another out of unintentional ignorance.
think of what would happen if we recognized every soul we interacted with. think of what would happen if every life really did mesh and manipulate one another. would the world be unified? yes. but would life be as mysterious? no.
while recognizing the apparent life of another person apart from yours is extremely interesting, it is also necessary that is stays that way, that their life keeps itself apart from yours.