The Existence We Never Realize

Sadness is not born from absence, but from comparison. We feel darkness because we know what light is. We feel loneliness because we have once heard the noise of togetherness. We feel loss because we once possessed something.

Imagine a person who has been blind since birth. They do not grieve over their blindness, because they have never known what light looks like. There is no sense of loss, because there was never an experience of seeing to begin with. The same applies to someone who has been deaf since birth—they do not mourn their condition, because they have never tasted the beauty of sound. Nothing is missed, because nothing was ever known.

“But I know blind people who feel sad because they are blind!” This statement is true—some blind people do feel sadness. But if we look more closely, we find something important:

That sadness does not come from blindness itself, but from the knowledge of difference. They are not sad because they cannot see, but because they are told that others can.

In other words, sadness arises only after comparison exists—between themselves and those who can see.

And yet… do they truly know what “seeing” means?

Like a child raised in a remote place who has never heard of the internet. That child never feels lacking. But once they learn that other children can watch movies, play online games, and learn through technology, envy and sadness may appear. Again, it is not absence that creates suffering, but awareness of difference.

Something That Exists, Yet We Never Realize It

Perhaps there is something out there that truly exists—real, present, surrounding us. And yet, because there is no contrast, we never become aware of it.

Existence can only be recognized when it has an opposite. We know darkness because there is light. We know cold because there is heat. We know sound because there is silence.

Without contrast, words are never born—and neither is awareness.

Imagine if from birth we could see only one color: black. No white, no blue, no red—only black filling our vision. Would we call it “black”? Probably not. Would we even recognize it as a color? We wouldn’t. We would not realize that anything exists at all.

Just like fish living in the ocean. A fish never feels “wet,” because it has never known what “dry” means. Wetness exists, but without contrast, the awareness of being wet never arises.

So it may be that something truly exists around us—something even more fundamental than light and darkness. But because there is no contrasting reference, we live our lives without ever realizing it is there.

Wasomanyema: Something That Exists, Yet We Cannot Sense

Today, we experience the world through the senses we possess:

Eyes give us color. Ears give us sound. Skin gives us texture. The nose gives us scent. The tongue gives us taste.

With these, we feel as though we fully understand the world. But isn’t it strange to assume that reality consists only of what our five senses can perceive?

Sometimes my thoughts wander: perhaps there is something in this universe that we have never named. Let us temporarily call it wasomanyema.

Wasomanyema exists. It is real. It surrounds us like air, like light, like gravity. But we lack the senses required to perceive it. And because we cannot sense it, we cannot become aware of it.

Imagine a being born without eyes. It lives in a world without color. Does color still exist? Of course. But for that being, color never enters awareness. The same is true for sound in a being without ears, or texture in a being without skin.

So perhaps there are “other colors,” “other sounds,” or “other sensations” that have never entered human consciousness. Things that lie beyond the reach of our five senses. Things that have always existed quietly, while we remain blind to them.

That something may be—wasomanyema.

Closing

If the world is fundamentally built on differences, then it is unwise to look down on those who are less intelligent, less fortunate, or less capable. It is precisely because of their existence that our own strengths can be recognized, appreciated, and given meaning.

Without difference, all the intelligence, ability, and fortune we take pride in would be empty and meaningless. The world is made different on purpose—so that humans may learn to value one another.