Sonder

I stand on this street corner day and night, where New Cathedral St meets Market St, enlightening anyone who’ll listen. Not about religion or products, about sonder!

“Do I know the way? Jesus is thataway, Moloch’s thataway, but here, right here, is where you’ll find sonder...” 

I first felt sondrous when I came across a wiseman with a placard on this very spot. I got the concept so deeply, he switched roles with me. One day, a randomer will relieve me, I’m sure of it. Until then, I spread the message.

“Do I have the time? Forget the clock, time is an experience! We’re all, at this moment, experiencing time differently. Look around in sonder...” 

It’s a matter of practice. See: for that girl licking birthday cake, the day will stretch like a sky balloon but, for that man with a face like a London bus rushing for a meeting, office hours are like a shuttle.

“Have I heard any rumours? I don’t stand here to gossip! Have you heard about sonder...” 

People think street preachers are mad or gullible fools, but imagine not believing in anything, or having a mind like a morsel menu of other peoples’ ideas. So many passersby stop to talk to me because they’re on the cusp of freedom of thought. I give them permission to breakthrough.

“What’s sonder? Hallelujah, I thought you’d never ask! Sonder is the profound awareness that everyone you happen past is experiencing a life as full and complex and real as yours, that you are an extra in others’ lifescapes...” 

I love the light that floods strangers’ eyes when they hear it for the first time, when they look around at a sea of protagonists. I can’t help but dance in celebration.

“Do I have anything to buy or sell? How can you think of commerce when there’s epiphany to be had! All I have to trade is sonder...” 

It’s a surprisingly common question. Perhaps people assume visionaries must have truth serum or mind-expanding drugs. Or maybe bartering in the street is a sign of these hard times.

“Let’s exchange truth then? Now you’re talking! I’ll swap the concept of sonder...” 

This really is my calling. Whichever branch of questions folk take me down, I naturally bring it back to this core realisation. I am living in its state.

“How does it feel to be a Non-Playable Character?” 

“Erm what do you mean, I play…or 

Oh my God, am I not... or 

Here, take my place…” 

*

To truly understand an idea, you must fully grasp its opposite. That’s how I got this pitch. I can’t wait for my first conversation!

“What’s the opposite of sonder?...” 

Published in Urban Scrawl April 2026: urbanscrawlmag.co.uk/edition-3