thanks. when asked if most people would prefer to experience a beautiful "moment" alone or with someone, usually they reply "with someone." the experience of seeing a breathtaking landscape or partaking in a once-in-a-lifetime trip is supposedly more powerful if it can be shared. some people value the bond that this creates between two people, some people value being able to poach another person's pictures. sometimes when friends go off to distant lands or have great weekends and try to relay the amount of fun they had to me, i kind of don't get it. i mean, i understand why they had a good time, i understand that universal feeling. but when i see the pictures and listen to the stories to get an approximation of what they experienced, i've found that it's just not possible.

and so when i have an extraordinary moment or experience i'm forced to try to share, i just kind of throw out a platitude or two to placate the masses. "it was pretty good, no, actually great." i realize that you really can't convey even ten percent of what makes your weekend great, or your trip to fiji amazing. these moments really can't be shared with anyone but yourself, or maybe the people you went with. so what you get is this build up of amazing moments that nobody knows about, that you can't explain, and then you're left feeling like nobody knows what you just did.

the solution to this problem is either to (a) get better at describing moments or (b) bring everyone along with you everywhere. i infinitely prefer option (b) simply because option (a) seems like a lot of work and even with work, i'm unconvinced that you can do moments justice by simply showing a few pictures or regaling people with some highlights.

looking at pictures and sharing stories of something great you just experienced is like trying to describe great scenes from a movie when the other person's never seen the movie. it's just frustrating. i say just give up until they've seen the movie.