Reality check

[kellinator]

After the travails of this morning, I was lucky enough to find the latest issue of Sports Illustrated to read during my lunch break, and guess what's on the first few pages? Photos from the Paralympic Games. An archer aiming with his mouth. A man with one leg riding a bicycle. A man with no legs swimming.

I'm skeptical about the whole other-people-have-it-worse-so-suck-it-up line of thinking sometimes. The fact that other people are going through hells a thousand times worse doesn't make your own problems go away when you're in the thick of them, and I really do think it's okay for us to feel our emotions without beating ourselves up over whether we have the right to feel that way. But... it's also important sometimes to step back and really look at what we have. If I don't like being a shadow person at work, what must it be like for the custodial staff? I'm from a blue-and-pink-collar home, I strongly believe that all work is honorable, but how much respect do they really get treated with? One of my co-workers mentioned that some people seem to make themselves feel bigger and better by abusing people they think will have to put up with it. It seems like the opposite should be the rule.

Do me a favor today. Be nice to someone you don't know. Or someone you know who isn't expecting it.

I know that I'll still get pissed when people are rude to me at work. But I have my health, I'm not hungry or homeless or in physical danger, my life is much more good than bad, and I can call some truly beautiful souls my friends. I'm blessed.

Comments

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some of us with disabilities hate that "other people have it worse" line. We also hate the "supercrip" line, wherein they point to someone with a disability doing something amazing, such as being a no-legged swimmer, and then expect everyone else with a disability to be able to do that!

"If they can do it, you should be able to!" It's not true, though. It never has been true.