Living vicariously through other people (in a good way?)

[Sherlock77]

I know this is often framed in a negative (and usually it is), but a thought from someone as I posted a photo in a Facebook group

you can live vicariously through others!

The context:

I met a German couple who are traveling through Canada for a few months in their 1998 Land Rover Defender motorhome, something you don't see much here... I did talk to them in the small campground they are staying at, and yes... my life seems rather boring at times, I do believe this topic has come up before in my posts

I think the idea being that at least I had a conversation, met them, etc... rather than just seeing a post on social media... I had a chat, a friendly couple, yes did take some photos that I'm quite happy with...

Is actually seeing it (not social media) not boring? A curious thought... Two of the photos I took for reference and/or viewer enjoyment...

 

[Gerontius]

"Be yourself: everyone else is already taken."
(Oscar Wilde.)
"Comparison is the thief of joy."
(Theodore Roosevelt.)

What I see is, you've got the interesting life of a street photojournalist, and get to take a bit of everyone else's interesting life and it adds to your own. Pretty interesting--no need to live vicariously, when one's own life is an adventure. It's just hard enough to take & either find or create adventure in life, but even the worst parts of my own life have ended up having adventurous spots in retrospect.

 

[Sherlock77]

"Be yourself: everyone else is already taken."
(Oscar Wilde.)
"Comparison is the thief of joy."
(Theodore Roosevelt.)

What I see is, you've got the interesting life of a street photojournalist, and get to take a bit of everyone else's interesting life and it adds to your own. Pretty interesting--no need to live vicariously, when one's own life is an adventure. It's just hard enough to take & either find or create adventure in life, but even the worst parts of my own life have ended up having adventurous spots in retrospect.

Your first two quotes (I agree with), and I do try not to compare myself... I merely posted this thread due to a slightly different perspective that was offered... And I still think my life is rather boring, other than the fact I got these photos I suppose and I can call them my own...

 

[Callistemon]

Interesting question, @Sherlock77 - I think I do both and always have - live my own life and live vicariously through others. The latter, mostly through books - fiction especially, but also nonfiction. In addition, I enjoy borrowing the eyes, ears and perspectives of others - whether online people or discussions with suitable people face to face. I like to know what life is like for people other than me. And I'm happy to create vicarious experiences for others, whether photo-essays on hiking beautiful places on the South Coast of Western Australia, or writing about all sorts of other things - having written for magazines for a decade and also putting all sorts of stuff on a blog.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Meeting people with different life experiences is a way to expand our world. I like that you have been active at that. It sure makes life more interesting, doesn't it?

 

[Judge]

Seems like a metaphor for something else I recall a very long time ago. - "Then Came Bronson"

Strikes me as something in a good way.

Guess it was vicarious to me as well...a show I liked a lot, but only lasted one season. I've only known one person who set out to do something like that, but then for him it was intended for only a single summer.

 

[Thinx]

Yes it's interesting to think how maybe some of us being interested observers of others could seem like we are living vicariously to an extent. It's not an ideal word though, for me. Maybe I am more like one of those mutually useful interacting creatures, forgot what that's called, pause to Google. Symbiosis of the mutual kind...

Honey guides and humans seem a lovely example. The honey guide is a bird that feeds on bees nests, their larvae and wax. They interact with hunters who are wanting to find honey, by guiding them in answer to their hunting calls. The humans take the honey and the birds get the rest. Win/win.

Yes, mutually symbiotic is what I am. Sometimes I may be the honey guide, helping the humans, other times I am the human in need of honey...

Coral and algae have a mutual interaction too. Plenty of other examples.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Yes it's interesting to think how maybe some of us being interested observers of others could seem like we are living vicariously to an extent. It's not an ideal word though, for me. Maybe I am more like one of those mutually useful interacting creatures, forgot what that's called, pause to Google. Symbiosis of the mutual kind...

Honey guides and humans seem a lovely example. The honey guide is a bird that feeds on bees nests, their larvae and wax. They interact with hunters who are wanting to find honey, by guiding them in answer to their hunting calls. The humans take the honey and the birds get the rest. Win/win.

Yes, mutually symbiotic is what I am. Sometimes I may be the honey guide, helping the humans, other times I am the human in need of honey...

Coral and algae have a mutual interaction too. Plenty of other examples.

And we owe all advanced life on earth to bacteria that provided energy to early cells in which they found a home.

 

[Stuttermabolur]

As a kid (and still today, really) I was always really quiet when there was a family dinner. Often, I wouldn't speak a word, but I was intently listening to the conversations others were having at the dinner table, and would often sit with them when long past dinner time just to listen to them talk.

 

[Sherlock77]

As a kid (and still today, really) I was always really quiet when there was a family dinner. Often, I wouldn't speak a word, but I was intently listening to the conversations others were having at the dinner table, and would often sit with them when long past dinner time just to listen to them talk.

I've done that before as well, just hang around and let the stories fly, whether it's a tall tale or not I have also learned how to dig out stories from people I meet along the way