(This post goes out to my recently acquainted friend, Matthew Galewski. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet you at GARP, and have spectacular memories of that weekend with you and our GARPhamily. There is something about you that draws people in, and once their in, they don’t want to leave. You are extremely intelligent, charismatic, humorous and motivating. Most importantly, your caring ways genuinely reflect the size of your heart. All of that wrapped into one package…pssshh…now that ain’t right! lol)

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”- Charles Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities

This quote was introduced to me by Matt during our Graduate Assistant Recruitment Weekend at the University of South Carolina. Matt, myself, and our friends Kelsey & Supaphen decided to take a stroll through the education building when we happened to stumble upon an empty classroom. Without hesitation, Matt goes to the front of the empty classroom and pretends to be our professor. His lesson consisted of writing quotes on the board, and we, as students, had to guess the person being quoted. Anyhow, he writes Charles Dickens’ quote on the board…and of course, we guess wrong, but afterward, the quote itself got me thinking.

Just to introduce my readers to the individual I am quoting, for those who don’t know, Charles Dickens was a famous English writer/novelist during the Victorian period.  His two major works include A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and Great Expectations (1861). Just for fun, I would like to mention that Charles Dickens and I share the same Zodiac Sign. By no means am I saying that we have the same writing abilities, but since he is an Aquarius, he’s probably one cool dude!

 The quote in its entirety reads, “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!”

Personally, I think Charles Dickens is so eloquently stating that we, as humans, need to reflect upon our judgments of others. Each of us is a profound secret to the other. We are all a mystery in the eyes of one another. Therefore, how can we justify the right to judge a mysterious creature of this Earth when  we ourselves are mysterious creatures of this Earth? It goes back to the simple phrase of you cannot judge a book by its cover. Look at it this way, we are all books… There are billions of us that make up the compilation of this Earth, and each one of us is filled with different content. We are filled with different languages, feelings, stories, pictures, memories, humors, thoughts and directions. Most importantly, we are all influenced by different characters.

If all of us are different, then on what basis can we judge one another? Even Charles Dickens quotes, “every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!” Meaning, sometimes the people closest to us don’t always know the mysterious of our being. Even the hearts that beat closest to our own cannot pass judgement.

I understand this is simply my interpretation and my interpretation only, but I hope it doesn’t hinder anyone  from wanting to comment below. I am open to all interpretations and opinions… that is what quotes and blogs are all about! So, please, comment below if you agree, disagree, or have no idea. 🙂