Sharing isn't easy

     It's funny how some things really hit home with you. One day you'll find a song, or a book, or a wildflower or something that speaks to you, something so amazing or beautiful that you are nearly overwhelmed by it, so you share it with a friend. I don't know about you, but one of two things usually happens to me. 
A) They scoff and call it "sappy" or are in other terms generally very unimpressed with it, 
or,
B) They LOVE it and GUSH over it and OH MY GOSH SO PRETTY! 

And suddenly, your precious discovery is ruined.

      It wasn't just "cute" to you, and it certainly didn't strike you as sappy; you connected with it on a deep level. But no one else seemed to have that experience. And what was peerless to you has now been soaked in a muddy splash from the judging car your friends drove past it and your delicate flower is left to wilt. And after a while you just stop sharing your wonderful little discoveries and keep them to yourself. Crazy as it is, you might even try to hide them. You know deep down they aren't really as perfect as you think they are, but you love them and you don't want any snide remarks to ruin your image of them.

     This can happen with much more than just songs. Sometimes while reading the Bible or stewing over an argument in my head suddenly a great piece of wisdom or a life lesson will suddenly become clear to me. I had known the mere words of it from time out of mind, but in an instant of revelation I truly understand them for the first time. When this first started happening I would rush to a friend or family member and tell them of this life-altering discovery, and they would just smile and nod. Either my inarticulate enthusiasm didn't magically inspire in them the same deep understanding of the "common knowledge", or else they had already understood it for quite a while. And once again, this deep connection I have is passed by unappreciated by the rest of the world as if it were something petty or common.
   
 It may seem crazy, but often this is enough to make me start doubting myself. Maybe I have bad taste in music, maybe I'm dumb for not figuring out these life lessons sooner, maybe I really am shallow and kitschy. In any case, it's clearly worthless for me to continue sharing my discoveries. It doesn't help anyone else and it depresses me.

      But then I will read something that explains something normal just a bit differently than I've heard it before, and everything clicks into place in my mind again and I understand it fully for the first time instead of just knowing it. Whoever wrote it didn't see the world the way everyone else did, she saw it the way I did, and she articulated for me something I could have never discovered by myself. Surely there is someone else like me out there, and maybe, just maybe, someday I could help them make a beautiful discovery too. If I could help just one person understand an idea better by looking at it from a slightly different angle, it would be worth all the criticism and and blank stares I get from everyone else who just doesn't get the way I think.

    I have no intention of criticizing anyone else's way of viewing the world. Even if we were all to come to the same conclusion we would reach it through a billion different paths, and there is no saying one path is better than the other. In fact, we all can benefit by being around those different than us to broaden our understanding. But sometimes you just want to be understood, and that is best achieved in finding someone whose way of thinking is closest to our own. However, without risking sharing what is closest to you, you can never find out who those people are. So take a chance and share something that is precious to you. I guarantee most people won't appreciate it the same way you do, but if it is truly worthy of appreciation then the opinions of other's doesn't really matter. And who knows, you might just find a "kindred spirit".

And of course, if you want to, comment! I'm not here to rant into thin air, and most of what I write about is of an exploratory nature. Discussion is welcome!