Friday, September 26, 2008

It's all relative...

So I got caught out daydreaming again. This time catching the train in the wrong direction and ending up a third of the way to my old town! Unfortunately I had on me some items that needed to be refrigerated so I could not give in to my deep heartfelt desire to take a 5 hour joyride and drop in for a "quick visit"!

Musings for today:
When I mix with really privileged people who have had "soft, easy" lives and see what is "tough going" for them, I have a perverse, arrogant sense of pride in the resilience and strength I've demonstrated in adversity...

but in the end it's all relative-there are always people worser off and better off than you-basically one learns to adapt and cope according to how one's life is.

I realised though that if you have to endure a lot of shit, it's possibly better to go through it earlier in life rather than later cos at least if it happens earlier you're more mentally tough so that if shit strikes again you won't end up crumbling into a hopeless heap like people who are first timers at a later age when they have less of that resilience you naturally have with youth....it's definitely a handy life skill to have!

In any case, the worst outcome is that because of these "life experiences" disproportionate to my age I find it pretty well impossible to relate to people my own age and even worse, it is quite a bit harder to really respect people who have had really easy lives.

The best outcome is that I have an immense sense of compassion for people who have to deal with adversity so I'm a good source of support for people like this.

Anyway just rambling to myself as usual. I'm buggered. I think I'll just eat plain rice for dinner.

Have a good weekend...I'm looking forward to mine :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

The more you endure, the more you grow as a person. People who have it easy in life will have a harder time when something bad comes their way.

I get that same pride in my accomplishments when I think of the things I have had to overcome. It is a good thing to be proud of yourself!

Mara said...

Wonderful blog. I love your Art of Zhen :-)
I shall return to read more ...I hope I can find my way back.

xx

Dina Roberts said...

I just finished reading the John Marsden book...about kids in the middle of a war. I wrote my friend telling her that I feel SO guilty thinking I have problems.

Reading the book made my life seem so sheltered and perfect. All my problems suddenly seemed incredibly trivial.

But then I realized almost ALL problems seem trivial in comparison to being in the middle of a war.

It is really all about perspective. When I was in high school, my parents told me we'd be moving. I would have to spend my last year of high school in a different school....in a different state.

I was devastated and had a lot of self-pity. Then my sister was hit by a car and was in a coma. Suddenly, moving and switching schools didn't seem like that big of a deal.

BUT if our city was bombed and people were dropping dead left and right....having one sister in a coma wouldn't seem that big of a deal.

The thing is though I think we have to take everyone's pain serious...even if it's less than our own.

Someone may tell a sob story that they were molested by an uncle when they were seven.

Another person might be able to trump them by saying their father molested them every night through out their childhood.

But the girl molested once by her uncle still might be in pain and she still might need sympathy. Just because someone else's experience is worse than hers....it doesn't discount what she went through.

Zz... said...

Dina, I totally agree. Everybody is born with different level of sensitivity, different character, different priorities and different life circumstances hence the same event will affect people different ways and may manifest as wildly different outcomes. But at the end of the day it helps to be positive!