Human Nature

Once there was a time when I would read books and be confused and wonder why the characters did the things they did and I would not understand, and I would think that it was because I was stupid and too young and inexperienced and did not grasp fully the depth of human nature and their motivations and their reasons for acting as they do.

Now it is different. I have realised that I will never understand, and that this is the normal way, and it is acceptable. I know now that there is no complete understanding of human nature. We barely understand ourselves, so how can we understand others. We struggle in vain to understand our friends, so how can we expect to understand characters created by someone we do not even know.

So now I do no longer seek to understand when I read a book. I read about a character's acts and decisions, I observe and I acknowledge, and that's all there is, and it is enough. I think it has made reading more beautiful.

Maybe one day I will also just observe and acknowledge my people in real life, and it will make life more beautiful. But of course those you have around you are quite different from characters in a book in that they exist, and they matter. So as of yet I am still trying to understand. Though more and more I wonder why...