Does anyone else ever feel insignificant?

Question

Sometimes when I am sitting around just thinking quietly, I am filled with this horrible feeling of being so small and insignificant amidst the whole world, or even the entire universe. Especially when there are tragic things happening daily, like school shootings, suicide bombings, things like that... I think I'm not alone in that, when something happens and a large group of people is killed, I start thinking about how the group is made up of individuals. But, I don't think many people look at them as individuals, but as a group. So, it's like it doesn't matter WHO it was that lost their lives, but just the number. So, it wouldn't have made a difference if it was me instead of one of the people in the group. Anyway, I just sometimes feel like it doesn't matter what I do on this world. (Keep in mind, I am happily married with a son, and definitely not depressed! Just thoughtful right now and wondering if anyone else shares my thoughts.)

Answer 1

We are insignificant to many people and significant to others. You know some of the people you are significant to, like your family and friends. But you have no way of knowing others you are significant to or how much.

For instance, you are significant to me today because you asked a question that made me think. I'll probably forget about this within some time and then you will no longer be very significant to me. But maybe a little bit of me has changed, so though I won't consciously remember, you will have made a difference to me.

It's those ripples that we send out into the lives of others. They do matter.

Answer 2

Yes, actually I've been feeling insignificant a lot lately. This is a very good question. I always wonder what would happen if I disappeared from the face of the earth, would anyone really care?Life would just go on as usual. Some people might miss me, but what is my overall contribution to the world? I think many people feel this way, at one time or another. I need to change my mindset and not be so hard on myself.

Answer 3

If one is not required in the world, one wouldn't be there, right? All of us are different, unique in some way, even if we're identical twins, and that's one of the biggest reasons of our existence. But why then we forget this logic, and start feeling insignificant?

The reason is, we don't talk to our "self" enough. We can talk to our self in free time, but there are very effective killers of free times available these days. We have some free time sitting on the shitpot, we can plan the day. But we choose to flip the pages of our favorite vanity magazine or newspaper instead. We commute to work, and have some free time talking to our self, or other passengers - but we choose to plug in the iPod in our ears instead. We have some free time when we call the customer care helpline and they put us on hold for 30 mins - but they choose to keep our mind busy listening to the monotonous music instead.

I feel each one of us must spend some time just with ourselves, absolutely silent, so that we can "feel" our existence, and its meaning. I strongly suggest you try sitting absolutely still and silent for 10 minutes every day, and you will feel much better within a week. Let me know how you felt.

Answer 4

The race of mankind is in itself insignificant. Life is expendable and is taken for granted by most people. You should live your life as fully as you can because the very next minute is not promised. Don't let other peoples opinions declare YOUR worth. Have confidence in yourself and don't fall into the trap of "acceptance". I have learned to love myself and be my own support. I choose how I want to look and I don't care what others think. What benefit is there to looking "sexy" in comparison to other people? None that I know of. There are some folks who are deformed or have some kind of physical defect and you are much better off than you think that you are. You said that you are intelligent and successful. You have more going for yourself than someone who's so wrapped up in appearances that important things are not a priority. Use your strengths and be happy with yourself!

Answer 5

Insignificance is a big, heavy struggle for most people. As small and ultimately meaningless as our lives may be, they are the only lives we know we have to live. In the end, I think I am important to myself and, as such, I should not dwell on how small I am because that will diminish my character in my own eyes.

Answer 6

Lemme get this straight....the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light years, exceeds ordinary human comprehension ...right? a time interval vastly greater than all of human history.

Another thousand times farther takes us to distant cluster of galaxies, but even then, that would be less than one ten-thousandths of a percent of the observable Universe. We are mere specks in an abyss of time and space.

With that backgroud, you're telling me that there is some significance in mankind?....don't make me laugh.

The hundred billion galaxies of our visible universe, each with a hundred billion stars, makes us but a grain of sand on the Sahara, grown out of that original "pure vacuum" or nothingness

Answer 7

When I was a kid, I could look out into the stars and fell that way. But I found it comforting.

These days, there are too many damn lights to see the stars. So I have to rely on mountain hiking or sunsets to remind of my nothingness.

Answer 8

I ride the rollercoaster. Sometimes everything seems awesome. Sometimes I am going nowhere and really just nobody important outside of family. Usually I reside in the middle.

Answer 9

Your perception of insignificance is not just a feeling, it is a basic truth of our existence, and our realization of this truth is the crucible in which genuine wisdom, humility and therefore love, are forged and perfected.

Answer 10

The reason or the sense of anything is not given to us to know. The universe is too vast and the ways of life too complex for us to know from whence it came and whence it goes. We only know what is set before us. What task is upon our very small plate. We never know if we’re too early or too late; or even if we are just in time. So we journey on blindly, reckoning not the climb. Thinking we know the way and what will come. Then out of nowhere it does come. We are left wondering what happened. This is the will of God in all of its sublime, though capricious, circumstance. The flutter of a butterfly’s wing on the winds of time. We need only know, that in the vastness of time and space, we are, after all, but a mote, moving through a speck of time. The universe churned long before us and will do so, long after. We are special only to those who know us and only for a brief time. Thereafter, it really doesn’t matter. We are gone and too soon forgotten, while life goes on.

Kings and heroes we know of from long ago, but what of the farmer who grew his food or the tailor that made his clothes. Can you name them? Yet, they lived when he did and their name did not come down through time. Few ever do. One in a million, it is said, is ever remembered to future time. What of prehistory, where no names are known? That was just five thousand years ago. Man stretches back to a million or so. What names or great deeds are now remembered from then? So you see, in time, all is forgotten and life goes on.

Man has, since history began, those five thousand years ago, tried to immortalize himself to future time. The Egyptians and others built pyramids and stone temples from lavish to simple to enshrine their name. Even today, we place granite or marble where we lay, to remind others of our name and time, but even stone wears away. It is hapless and hopeless to attempt to keep our name alive, not even sending it through history upon an another, because generations end. Though they may not. It just depends. However, from whence it was got is soon forgot . Think only of having your deeds recorded in history, where they will live to a ripe old age. Although the story is soon forgotten, as is your name. Today, we cherish our heritage and name, but in time, both will be forgotten - as life goes on.

The only thing that may survive is our specie; then by a name other than Latin. In some other place with a little different patent. For whence ere we go, we change. We are not those of ancient Africa born, but a different range of man, as may be clearly seen by the few remnants that remain of elder man. No doubt, if we are here, when we must flee this planet, we will have changed and shortly, as time goes, after we leave, we will change again. If ever we remain the same, having lost the capacity for change, we will perish, become extinct. Then time will have forgotten man. It will be up to others, of a different specie, to give our distinct bones names, if any of them remain within the sand . Perhaps, some remnant of our deeds will go on for others to puzzle over, but not our name. That is for kings and others of note, if any record of them remain. All else is forgotten and life goes on.

Do you know who your great-grandparents are? Do you know their life’s story? Do you remember meeting them? Can you remember their names? Do you know where they lay? Can you go to their grave? While four-generation families are becoming more common, fifth generations are rare and even less remembered. Stories of them are not told, although they were much more bold than we. Pioneers and adventurers though they were, few of them are remembered. This is the province of the rich and famous not the poor and mundane. Sadly, we fail to remember those who came before, when naught marks their passage upon this earth. So, it is, as life goes on.