When we identify with something or someone, we tend to ascribe to it the values that we ourselves hold as important. I'm realising that this is a serious impediment to properly understanding your world (though it does make for more harmonious relationships).

Over the last couple of months I've come to realise that there are a number of people in my life (or who were in my life) who have entirely different world-views than my own, despite my having assumed for years that they shared my values. In one case, it was rather sharp and painful to realise it after so many years (former gf). In the latest, it was just a weird disconnect, a moment of vertigo as I realigned my understanding of the relationship to take into account a completely different set of values and dreams.