Cosmic Recycling

I was talking to a friend the other day about a problem I'd been having.  Of course I expected some advice, some guidance...but what I got was a story that nearly mirrored mine.  Normally this sort of thing would bother me.  I hate when people take your problem and turn it around so they can speak about themselves, but this time it got me thinking, if it is so easy to do that to someone else's  story; spin it around to make it yours, then what does that say about the human experience?  To me it seems to say that the human experience really does transcend cultural and physically boundaries.
There are those fundamental hopes, fears, highs and lows that none of us can avoid or recreate in a way that has not yes been felt. Betrayal, heartbreak, promotion, love. For better or worse, none of these emotional mountains and valleys that, like steroids to body builders, strengthen our characters in what can often be the most painful of methods – are avoidable. It seems to basic an answer to conclude that we are all so similar that our lives will follow the same course regardless of surrounding factors. If not that though, it must be something more deliberate, even if on a subconscious level. Maybe all of our experiences, including those that we think are fastidiously pinned to us alone, the ones that would be unrecognizable in the personhood of others are really coming to pass because we are sending messages from our own minds (having recorded our experiences already) to the minds of those that surround us. Maybe this mysterious transcendence of experience that shocks us time and time again is not mysterious at all. Could it be that we are all part of some cosmic recycling program, transferring our experiences and emotions through ourselves to the next person and the next, until none of us are harboring an original sentiment? It could be a relief to know that we are taking turns reenacting our version of the story that has reached our subconscious first, sure. It would mean that we are not taking nearly as many risks as we thought we might be and that the outcomes of our actions are not innumerable afterall. Yes, this could be a relief to quite a few people. To me however, reaching the conclusion that I was having someone else’s experience would be an astronomical discouragement. I am an American and therefore can’t help but being for individualism. Still, the bright side of this recycled experience would be that we are a united entity and could therefore move forward in creating a shared identity to compliment the individualistic one we have come to know as “I”. There is something to be said for a solid common ground that we could manipulate to fit into not only our fleeting personalities, as Fitzgerald would say, but to fit into our more solid and far less fleeting, personage. In a way, it’s a beautiful thing.