The Shared Human Experience

It feels nice knowing that humans naturally want to share. Share our knowledge, our stories, our emotions. By our very core, we want to let people know things. We're social creatures! Emotions are shared through wordless noises; from an angry grunt, to a delighted squeal, to an agonized howl. A pained yelp is ingrained into our instinct to let others know we got hurt. To let the pack know that there's danger. But then we have words. Language. We express complex feelings and stories. We sort knowledge. Share what we want others to know.

Humans, at our core, want to share. We want to pass on knowledge to the younger generations. We want to bare our emotions for others to connect to with theirs. We want to make up stories in our heads and relay them by any means available. Even something as simple as a joke or meme is a form of connection. Just to know that you're laughing at something others are laughing at. That brief spark of companionship.

That spark is something we crave. The crumb of gratitude recieved when you hold the door for someone. The "bogos binted" video you shared. The character you send to your friend that you both enjoy. The knowing nod when you pass by someone with a pride pin. Or simply saying "I know, right?" in response to someone venting their frustrations.

I don't know shit about my family history, but one thing I can feel is that someone like me has done things I have. Someone got angry one day, took a short hike into the woods, and just screamed. A caveman sometime hummed along to the beat of rainfall. Growled in anger. Chattered or ground their teeth. Kicked a rock on a glum day. Little signs that signal to others around how one is feeling.

The smaller cues can be hard to catch, especially when you have autism. But I guess that's why I look into some of them; and why I'm so fascinated by human behavior. As a kid, due to alienation, I was almost ashamed to call myself human. But slowly I realized I too am a pack animal. There are others like me, and I crave their connection just as much as allistics do. Just on my own terms.

I don't know where I'm going with this train of thought. But I guess next time you sing just to fill the space, feel connected. Chances are somebody else is doing the same thing right now.

The GIF collection is FINALLY all moved! Now all there is left to move is my art. If I stick to dithering and image shrinking, it should be doable. Of course, I should also double check to make sure all the dividers and such are using the new image links. But I started with the GIF collection because it was the most daunting task. So now the rest of the image moving should be a piece of cake.