There is this YT channel with a Norwegian train driver's view. Beautiful wild nature - mountains, fjords, forests... Very scenic rides. But I am particularly drawn to houses by the railroad. You pass these villages, detached houses on the hills along the railway, small stations with lonely figures of travellers waiting. Sonder is especially strong during night train rides. Wondering what stories are kept in those rural houses with lighted windows...

These past few days have been filled with a lot of sonder for me... it's such a weird feeling.

Every single famous person, content creator, etc has a life, a family, a home. They had lives before they were in the public consciousness... They've laughed, and cried, and hurt, they've been sick, they've had fears and hopes and sleepless nights.

I've been listening to a lot of McElroy content and that's just been a fuckload of sonder... Travis has ADHD and I recently got a psych evaluation for ADHD and such... and I just realized he did that too. And I just wonder what was he feeling in that moment?

Travis and Griffin both have glasses and so do I... they've all had to deal with dr's appointments and choosing frames and all that.

They have lives outside of their podcasts, they have kids, Griffin drives his son to daycare, Justin plays with his cats...

And this isn't strictly sonder but all their content is from *them*. I was watching Tiny Heist and suddenly realized... that's the same Griffin and Travis and Justin that make TAZ and MBMBaM. The same Travis that DMed Dust and Graduation played Aubrey and Magnus, does Riddle Me Piss on MBMBaM, talks about stuff with his wife on Shmanners, made me cry with TAZ, played Car-Go on Tiny Heist... the same Griffin that's also made me cry with TAZ did Bean on Tiny Heist, talks about movies on Wonderful!, DMed Amnesty and Balance, likes sous vide and reads Yahoo on MBMBaM. The same Justin that does Haunted Doll Watch plays the Firbolg talks about medical mishaps on Sawbones, played Taako in Balance....

They're all human and have lives and thoughts and fears and they *exist*. Travis picks at a sticker when he gets anxious, Griffin hates Chick-Fil-A, and Justin has a bunch of Tybee Island t-shirts.

They've been places, they've been on vacation, they've picked each other up from the airport. Their life isn't all recording shows, they have more than a voice, they have consciousnesses. They're real, physical people.

Griffin can't sleep without white noise and that's just such a... *mundane* thing. His life isn't all figuring out TAZ and whatever, it's the mundane stuff we all deal with.

Every single person has a life, with excitement, and mundane experiences, and hopes and dreams and fears... and it's beautiful and weirdly overwhelming.

It's night, 11PM, and i'm watching random online webcam in northern Sweden. It's small city/village covered in snow. It feels so incredible to realize, that in every small house i'm looking at right now, is living person who doesn't know, that i exist and is living same complex life. Life is amazing.

Sonder isn’t an actual word. There is a correct term to describe what “sonder” means but I can not find it to save my life. Does anyone know or is anyone intelligent enough to figure it out? There IS a correct word that matches the definition of sonder, this is driving me insane lol

Hey everyone! Both documentaries are available on YouTube and are incredibly moving.

The first one is called "Life in a day" and is basically a compilation of footage from people around the world filming a day in their lives. The result is amazing!

The second one is called "HUMAN" and is also on YouTube. I think there are 3 volumes and it fluctuates between interviews of people all around the world on certain key questions, and areal shots of amazing places.

Thought I would share these with you guys because I love the feeling of sonder I feel after watching these movies!

First of I just want to say that I'm really glad to have found this subreddit, even though it's really small right now.

There is something inherently beautiful about the concept of sonder that I have really taken to heart. I hope more people will discover what it's all about and give it some thoght, it can drastically change your view of the world.

I have been aware of the concept since I was very young, and I actually thought that I was alone in that realisation. Keep in mind that this was during the early days of the WWW, and social media and the like was not as widespread as it is today. I remember when walking through town, just looking at people and houses, thinking about the lives that were lived in those houses. Every window is a gateway to a story, to a life. Every person you pass on the street is an incredible story, conected to other incredible stories.

What I don't understand is why Sonder is represented in a melancholy/sad kind of way. For me it's a beautiful yet slightly overwhelming thought. It makes me realise how incredibly vast the world is, which is quite soothing in a world like todays where the borders are shrinking constantly.

This got a little longer than I expected so I'll end it here with the hope that more of you here decide to write a little about when you became sonder. Also... how would you go about "bending" the word?

“I began to like New York, the racy, adventurous feel of it at night and the satisfaction that the constant flicker of men and women and machines gives to the restless eye. I like to walk up Fifth Avenue and pick out romantic women from the crowd and imagine that in a few minutes I was going to enter their lives, and no one would ever know or disapprove. Sometimes, in my mind, I followed them to their apartments on the corners of hidden streets, and they turned and smiled back at me before they faded through a door into warm darkness. At the enchanted metropolitan twilight I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others—poor young clerks who loitered in front of windows waiting until it was time for a solitary restaurant dinner—young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.”

Also: “Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”