We all do it I think, place ourselves on pedestals where our issues are so unique or special that there cannot possibly be anyone who has a similar fate. We place ourselves on pedestals and just enjoy the view of the misery. I've had a lot of self inflicted grief in my life, so unique I thought, so special, until I met some people with exactly the same life experiences and I realized that my pedestal was a more prison than monument.
Last week was awful, worse in a long time and so unique, or so I thought. But then I met a group of people who were experts in having awful weeks and I realized that, in comparison, which one should never do, my awful was kind of tame, or so it made me feel.
It has caused me to look at people in a whole new light: We see the Facebook clichés that say things like "don't judge because everyone has their own struggles" and such, and like most people I took it not to heart at all. I have grown an appreciation for people, the drunk who is begging for money at a stop light is not, likely performing his life's work. He did not wake up one day and say "I should drink Listerine and beg for loonies". His addiction is not his alone, it belongs to us all because we are all people.
Some of us are luckier than others, we have nice homes, nice cars and good jobs. We don't think about where to sleep or how to steal food from a dumpster. We have our shite together and that is mostly good luck with a mix of planning.
Many people don't know how to plan, or foresee the consequences of behaviour, they never learned. They get themselves in shitty situations that everyone else could foresee I am a sudden big proponent of dignity, that each person deserves to be treated as we, ourselves, would like to be treated. That our luck, or planning or upbringing should not isolate us from those who are not so fortunate
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