Free. We used vouchers to pay for the meal. I hardly use real cash to pay for food these days, but that's not the point of today's post.
As we were sitting there peacefully eating our breakfast and sipping our "atas" coffee, we noticed a lady muttering to herself. She wasn't just saying incoherent things. We weren't able to clearly hear what she was saying exactly but they were proper sentences about her life and stuff like that.
As time went on, she started standing up and giving a "speech" with a cup of coffee in one hand and talking, as though as she were telling a story to a group of friends around her.
Around this point, we finished our breakfast and left. We didn't leave cos of her. It's just that we finished our breakfast. She wasn't really disturbing anyone, just kinda talking to herself in a corner of the uncrowded Starbucks in the morning.
Ok so this incident triggered me to think of a string of thoughts.
I wondered, would it be useful if someone talked to her?
But with her current condition, who would talk to her?
If she had friends and family who cared, wouldn't they have talked to her BEFORE she ended up with an unstable mental condition?
And then the revelation came to me.
How do we know, we do not have any mental condition?
We all look at the world through our own eyes. Our own feelings/emotions.
How do we know what other people feel? Do you feel from their body? Their mind?
No right?
We assume they will feel similar with reference to ourselves.
We like the taste of something, we think most others will like the taste of it.
50 million people love kimchi, the population of Korea. But I don't really like kimchi.
They taste kimchi with their tongue, it sends a signal to the brain to say it's delicious. The brain never recognizes displeasure.
I taste kimchi with my tongue, it sends a signal to my brain to say, too much garlic. The brain never recognizes pleasure.
No one really knows how each other feels. You can only reference it against yourself. And at best, only ASSUME what they feel, taste, smell is similar to how you experience it for yourself.
So when we look at everyone else, I assume I have no mental issues, cos I'm behaving like most people.
I think that there's a high chance that that lady has a mental issue. Cos she's not like me or most people around us.
But then... how do I know that I am right?
What if 90% of people started talking to themselves?
And I don't...
Does that make ME have a mental issue? Cos I'm not normal?
And so begs the question? What is normal? What is right? What is wrong?
How do you know you don't have depression?
You look at the world through your own eyes. You feel sad/moody/stressed...
But you think to yourself... that's normal right?
Maybe when the lady was really depressed, she never knew she had any mental issue, she was just really stressed... then as time progressed, she may develop other mental conditions which resulted in the way she is currently.
I would think it's quite obvious that she wouldn't know she has a mental issue right?
Which leads me to believe, IF one can recognize that they have a mental issue, then it could lead to recovery. Cos at least they recognize that something is wrong and can potentially take steps to rectify it.
But if that person is blissfully ignorant, then that person would never realize that something is wrong...
But then again... what's wrong with that?
Assuming that she doesn't have murderous tendancies or suicidal thoughts...
If she lives in her own mental world is there anything wrong?
Ok usually mental conditions deteriorate so it's bad... I'm just putting out a perspective that we all live in our own mental worlds. What makes our own mental worlds better or worse than others?
But let me put it this way... aren't we all living in our own mental worlds now?
We don't buy excessive stuff, we don't do what the normal people do, we aren't considered normal.
Do we have a mental issue? Just that we don't know about it?
And here we are all patting ourselves on the back thinking we are all ok, and that being frugal is the way to go?
Or about freegans, especially dumpster diving freegans.
Not all freegans dumpster dive, not all dumpster divers are freegans.
So dumpster diving freegans, I have a belief that we all have some form of mental issues.
I said "we" cos I'm included in this group. Although I don't dumpster dive regularly.
Issues... not saying that we are mad.
But rather, due to maybe upbringing, or certain childhood events, or certain life events, etc.
It made us different. Come on, let's all agree no normal person would open a dumpster to get stuff right.
So there must be something "wrong" or different with us. And I believe that we all have some incident from our past that made us this way.
But even more ridiculous... I/We, think that the rest of the world might be mad!?
People throwing away perfectly good/usable stuff? Better than the stuff we own at home.
People paying money for stuff when we can get it for free?
Who's more irrational?
But yet in this case, who is the weirdo?
The dumpster diver who gets the item for free or the consumer?
If someone says it's not worth the effort, then the same could be said about work. It's not worth the effort to work for money to buy stuff as a normal consumer. It may still be worth it to work for money to pay for things which cannot be obtained for free, utilities, telco services, medical, etc.
Even if some things cannot be bought with money, there are still many things which can be obtained for free. If you have a banana tree at home, you wouldn't go out and buy bananas right? But you may go out and buy mangoes.
So who has the mental issue?
The one who is irrational or the one who is rational?
The one who follows societal norms or the one who is the weirdo?
And as I kept thinking about this topic, I kept going around in circles.
Cos if everyone does it, then that's supposed to be the "right way" but if that's irrational then that means it's the "wrong way".
If I talk to myself, I'm probably deemed as "something wrong", but if everyone talks to themselves, then that's ok.
And it made me think, there's no right or wrong in A LOT of things, cos it depends on the state of society we are in and what is accepted at that point in time. But as society changes, different things become the norm and maybe certain normal things in the past become illegal.
We look at everything through out own eyes and our own feelings. It is IMPOSSIBLE to know how someone else feels about something else. You ASSUME cos you use your own experience to place it upon them and think they should feel similarly.
Examples of things we assume are right/wrong, due to what we ourselves perceive are things like...
Poverty, religion, stupidity, homosexuality, freeganism, the taste of kimchi...
My brain cannot register happiness when I taste kimchi... I cannot appreciate it. But I know there's a chance other people who's brains are structured differently.
Our brains are complex organs.
I think I'm smart, based on academic results. I don't know how someone who has a lower IQ would process information or remember things or analyze things. I will never know.
Unless I get a brain transplant and retain BOTH a stupid brain and an intelligent brain. Only then can I compare. Cos if I get a brain transplant with a stupid brain, then I once again, would never know what it feels like to be intelligent.
Poverty and homelessness, I will never understand how it feels like to be truly poor and homeless. Even if I simulate homelessness and live without money for a month. But I know I can come home after a period of time. This can hardly simulate the uncertainty of someone who is poor or homeless, how they feel, why they are unable (or unwilling) to get out of their situation. I will never know unless I am really there. And I will try to never reach such a situation.
I like girls. I don't get aroused when I see guys. I will never know whether homosexuality is a mental issue or people are born different.
(Some medical studies suggest some people are just born different from others, other people are adamant that homosexuality is a mental issue and should be "cured".)
Similar to I don't like kimchi, others may like kimchi.
My brain doesn't register excitement when I see guys. But that doesn't mean I reject the idea that someone else's brain might be wired differently at birth.
I will never know what it feels like to be attracted to guys. And I conclude it at that.
I hope no one will force me to eat kimchi in an attempt to "cure" me.
Some people have a relationship with their God/Gods...
Others don't. Some people may feel really passionate about their God and how their religion has impacted their lives. Others don't.
Similarly, we cannot use our own experiences to benchmark other people's experiences.
Should someone force you to love another God?
I hope no one will force me to eat kimchi in an attempt to "save" me.
Freeganism is like religion. Once you "see/experience" it, you wonder why everyone else doesn't do it.
I can understand why some people are so passionate about their religion. Cos they have felt the love of their God and they want to spread the word and share the happiness and help others to feel the same happiness and love.
And they cannot understand why other people just don't want to be saved and loved and why people don't want to listen. Cos they have seen the light and are unable to understand why others don't want to see the light as well.
Similarly for freegans, we think the everyone else is irrational and we wonder why more people don't do it. Why buy stuff when you can get it for free? It's become an obsession for some of us.
In these circumstances, we never really know, unless we are the person themselves, but that's not possible to be the other person, and the only way to understand is to benchmark against our own experiences. But is it fair to do so? You don't have my taste buds and my brain and how my brain processes tastes and flavors. How do you know what kimchi tastes like in MY mouth? You can only know what kimchi tastes like in YOUR mouth and ASSUME that it tastes the same in MY mouth. The chemical composition in kimchi might be the same, but how our brain reacts to the chemicals is different, and you will never know how my brain processes the taste of kimchi.
So you see, all of our brains are structured differently. And there's nothing wrong with that. We just need to recognize that everyone has a different brain and different feelings and everyone senses things differently. We always only look at the world through our own eyes and senses. It is IMPOSSIBLE to feel what others feel or experience. And you will NEVER be able to experience what they are going through. And everyone experiences each incident differently, even if it is the same incident.
Benchmarking what we feel against what we expect others to feel is unfair cos who's to say who's feelings are right or more true?
So are you mad? Do you have any mental issues? How do you know? What is a normal mental state?
Is a normal mental state rational or irrational? Does society dictate what is a "correct" mental state?
But if that the case, then there is not such things as a "correct" mental state, cos that changes as society changes.
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