Context.

I tend to think that my experiences/feelings/thoughts are unique. The details certainly are. But I often need to remind myself that it’s really not singular. That many, many people have the same experiences/feelings/thoughts. When its something positive, something that makes me really happy, I could care less about whether anyone is experiencing the same (I’m terribly selfish). When its something less positive, however, I like to know that I’m not unique.

What I mean to say is that people have been feeling these same emotions for centuries! millenia! And most of them muddle through. Some of these individuals have even left behind their ideas, experiences, and emotions in tangible works–music, literature, paintings…movies, TV shows, magazine articles, blogs.

In History Boys, Mr. Hector explains how poetry becomes our own expression:

Timms: Sir, I don’t always understand poetry!
Mr. Hector: You don’t always understand it. Timms, I never understand it. But learn it now, know it now, and you will understand it…whenever.
Timms: I don’t see how we can understand it! Most of the stuff poetry’s about hasn’t happened to us yet.
Mr. Hector: But it will, Timms, it will. And when it does, you’ll have the antidote ready. Grief, happiness–even when you’re dying.

For the same reason, I love Before Sunset. Each time I watch the film is a unique experience. I watched it again recently and as always, I discovered things about myself.

The Book of Psalms kind of works like that as well. Some passages are really lovely, but only at the right time.

Psalms 16

Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Love.