Koinophobia: The Fear of Being Ordinary
When you look back over your life, or try to put it down on paper, you can see more of it now than ever before. And yet it seems somehow diminished. Humble. Almost quaint. So you begin scanning your life, looking for something interesting or beautiful. But all you see is ordinary people assembled in their tiny classrooms and workspaces, each of us moving around in little steps, like tokens on a game board.
ETYMOLOGY
From Greek koinos, "common, ordinary, stripped of specialness" + phobia, "fear".
CREDITS
Vimeo / YouTube Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution License, except where noted
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
A Small Film - (Tilt Shift)
by Joel Cosson
https://vimeo.com/27415248
Bangkok rainy
by wineak
https://vimeo.com/25097441
Borgeous - Wildfire
by Jeff Dotson [by permission]
https://vimeo.com/97586810
Don't Let The Day Get Away- Inspirit
by Hello Sunday Morning
https://vimeo.com/126202891
Don't Let The Day Get Away- Motivate
by Hello Sunday Morning
https://vimeo.com/126202893
Haneda Airport Tilt Shift by darwinfish105 P
https://vimeo.com/70941609
Humble Along by Ryan Gebura
https://vimeo.com/120307682
I love Japan- TIMELAPSE by Nicholas Damen
https://vimeo.com/23131638
II by TIM CIAVARA
https://vimeo.com/74353770
Little Adventures in Rotorua by Steven Wills
https://vimeo.com/99392475
Little Fo Tan by Niels Rahbek
https://vimeo.com/17129128
micro munich 2 - the next tale from above (Tilt-shift miniature city) by EXPLANIDEO HANDMADE INFOFILMS https://vimeo.com/32975207
Mini Bal Harbour by SoFla360
https://vimeo.com/11878382
Miniature Cincinnati by Gus Geraci 1 year ago
https://vimeo.com/77563841
Mitakon Zhongyi Lens ~ Test Review by IrfanKhokharFilms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVboLw6J3nI
Moments in Lens Whacking by Alessandro Faraon
https://vimeo.com/48898314
Roamin and Ramblin by Kate Lyons
https://vimeo.com/98193056
Scrambling in Joshua Tree GH4 by Sean Daigle
https://vimeo.com/110897085
She Is Poetry by AJ Duthie
https://vimeo.com/54931861
Summer Clouds & Night at Petco Park (Timelapse by Aloha-PhotoVideo.com) by Aloha PhotoVideo
https://vimeo.com/82849194
The Moving Calgary by Charlie Su
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn2WOYKUato
Tilt Shift by River Harbor
https://vimeo.com/10123720
Tilt Shift Streets by Juicy Frames
https://vimeo.com/78244078
Tilt-Shift Fonforro?n by lacazan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJFVmGoYPd8
Time-lapse Tiny town Museum by BonelessChicken
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITu7f-mDb08
Tokyo City View Observatory Tilt Shift by darwinfish105
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL8B75QYT_w
Tokyo City View Tilt Shift by darwinfish105
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMuh4bT6wF8
Toy Fowey by Matt Jefferies
https://vimeo.com/102523495
York Harbor Inn Tilt Shift
by Echodawg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCJ2w2wRj4U
TRANSCRIPT
While you're in it, life seems epic.
Fiery, tenuous, and unpredictable.
But once you have some distance from it,
everything seems to shrink,
until it's almost out of focus.
Koinophobia. [Key-no-phobia]
When you look back over your life, or try to put it down on paper,
You can see more of it now than ever before.
And yet it seems somehow diminished. Humble. Almost quaint.
So you begin scanning your life, looking for something interesting or beautiful.
You see an ordinary house, with an ordinary yard, on an ordinary street.
It looks smaller than you remember. You once had wild dreams and obstacles and risks looming all around you, but now they look smaller too.
You remember giants and goddesses and villains,
But all you see is ordinary people assembled in their tiny classrooms and workspaces, each of us moving around in little steps, like tokens on a game board. No matter how many times you rolled the dice, it was always these little moves, here and there.
Do a little work, Take a little rest.
Make a little friend, Throw a little party.
Feel a little boredom, Have a little rebellion.
There are so many of these token moments, that were supposed to represent some other thing. You keep adding them all up, as if there was something you forgot to count, some stash of glory that fell off the back of a truck.
You may adore the life you have, for everything it is. You know it isn't groundbreaking; you wouldn't change a thing.
Maybe when you first started building the life you wanted, you left plenty of room for what might happen, and somehow lost track of what was happening.
Or maybe you were never 'in it' to begin with. Maybe you knew even then that this wasn't the world you expected. A world so low and common you tried to keep your distance, floating somewhere above it, where nobody else could look down on this life you built.
Nobody else but you.
THE DICTIONARY OF OBSCURE SORROWS
http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language-to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don't yet have a word for. Follow the project, give feedback, suggest an emotion you need a word for, or just tell me about your day.
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