Many Worlds

I have often ruminated on the idea that the world is changing in drastic ways and at a stomach-wrenching pace. But, to nitpick a bit, it would be more faithful to my feelings to say that some worlds are changing more than others. Acknowledging that these are points of deep philosophical debates and accepting that I might be treating them somewhat flippantly, we all have personal worlds that overlap with the external world and with the worlds of others. But, the overlap is not complete and that is the basis for the individual experience of life. Overlaps happen by choice or destiny, and I don't mean just the people who come into our lives. I am talking about an individual's experience of life which can never be identical to another's but can nonetheless overlap to differing extents. The world of a poor, Dalit woman has perhaps not changed as much as mine or possibly has changed more but in a different way. When one gets too exercised about the dismal state of the world and the ignorance and apathy towards it, one must remember that our experience is our experience alone. If someone experiences the world in a fundamentally different way, they can't be expected to react to it in the same way. Processes at work that seem blindingly obvious to us might not be to another person of similar  intelligence. This is not a cop-out in the fashion of trying to be compassionate towards right-wingers. It is a tool for survival and a  palliative for rage, which can galvanize one into action but can also throw one off balance.