Those who
sell products know that they must understand how the experience of a product
affects potential customers, how that product not only satisfies some need the
customer perceives, but also an experience the customer craves.
At the risk
of expanding the scope of sales in a crass society which already seems to
commercialize everything, I encourage you to consider how creating and
appreciating experience is a prominent feature of all areas of our lives.
You want
those you love to love you. But no one
can fully appreciate you, another person can only love the experience of
you. In fact, you only love the
experience of others, not them, not fully.
You would
still do anything for love, for those you love.
The fact that you are limited by your perception of others, limited to
merely experiencing others, may seem a semantic distinction. But it suggests things true and
important:
- We often don’t appreciate how we affect our experiences of each other, nor for that matter, our experience of places and things around us.
- Things which distract us from experience, or censor experience, things which impair our experience—drugs, alcohol, rage, sorrow—strike at the heart of living.
- Things which improve our experiences, and the experiences of those around us may improve life, or may give us false assurances until the nature of others and of things assert themselves and temper our experience: The stock market rise was a fluke, the warm feelings we had were fueled by false advertising, or a lover’s lies.
Experience is our reality check, as well as how we are misled. Thus paradox resides in the foundation of human experience, which accounts for religious faith and nihilism, sarcasm and good humor, hope and despair.
Make your
experiences count.