“Somewhere here I want to bring in a learning which has been most rewarding, because it makes me feel so deeply akin to others. I can word it this way. What is most personal is most general. There have been times when in talking with students or staff, or in my writing, I have expressed myself in ways so personal that I have felt I was expressing an attitude which it was probable no one else could understand, because it was so uniquely my own…. In these instances I have almost invariably found that the very feeling which has seemed to me most private, most personal, and hence most incomprehensible by others, has turned out to be an expression for which there is a resonance in many other people. It has led me to believe that what is most personal and unique in each one of us is probably the very element which would, if it were shared or expressed, speak most deeply to others. This has helped me to understand artists and poets as people who have dared to express the unique in themselves.”

- Carl Rogers, On Becoming A Person, p. 26

This inspiring passage exquisitely captures my experience - and, apparently, the experience of others - with courage, connection, vulnerability and authenticity in sharing trials and tribulations both online and offline.

I went searching for the quote today after browsing through the new Pew Internet study on Peer-to-Peer Healthcare, especially the experiences survey respondents reported in a section about We can say things to each other we can't say to others.

I hope that social media will enable more of us to say more things to more others, so that we can realize the goal behind Rare Disease Day: "Alone we are rare. Together we are strong."