@lymepoet,

Great post, Lavi.

Here's a strange thing: In comparing ourselves with others, which we all do, we tend to focus exclusively on people who have more (of whatever). It can be an astonishingly enlightening exercise to deliberately compare yourself with others who have less.

You won't have to go far to find them. People choosing between the rent and groceries. Or people with sufficient money but chronic health problems. Or people with sufficient money and good health but whose marriage, and family, is disintegrating before their eyes.

No one escapes life's torments, so pick your poison. You may find that your relative standing in the world isn't as bad as you first thought. Working two jobs is getting you down ... how about the woman next door who was just diagnosed with cancer? Would you trade your problems for hers? Or that woman with Alzheimer's. Or that homeless man whose horizon does not extend beyond where he'll get his next meal and where he'll sleep tonight.

None of this is to say that your problems aren't real or deserving of a bit of self-pity. An eternal optimist's delusions are no more an accurate reflection of reality than those of a perennial pessimist.

But as so much in life, it's a matter of perspective. There are numbers between zero and a hundred for a reason. A 10 lb problem is not the same as a 90 lb problem. Calibration is important.

Quill