Comparison Therapy

Is there anything more stressful than seeing water gushing into your basement? If you had asked me this question a few days ago, I might have said "Hell no!" But that was then. Today I think everything is relative.

Time and water will do that. Change the priorities in your life.

One of my teachers in high school was wont to intone "All comparisons are invidious." (Come to think of it, that quote is one of the few pieces of wisdom I can recall from my high school education . For some reason the assertion has stayed in my head all these years.) It made complete sense at the time. It seemed to convey a deep understanding about the nature of envy and competition.

These days, I am not so sure about the invidiousness of making comparisons. Hierarchy is all about distinctions, and we cannot escape the hierarchical nature of society, and the fact that we have a "place". The key to contentment is: Instead of obsessing about people who are better-off (and higher-up) than you, it is much more therapeutic to consider one's situation relative to others who are less fortunate. You know like, eat your spinach, they are starving in China. Or, you are complaining about not having shoes; then you meet someone who has no feet(see note 1).


So if you can feel a little better-off than at least one other person, it helps with the stress, right?

On further thought, if I was creating a list of stressful situations, the gushing water would not be so high on the list.

For example: watching your nest egg being depleted by forces you do not understand...that ranks up there on the stress curve. How about nagging rectal itch? Pretty stressful as Capt Hargreaves (Ret.) has informed me. Hell 90% of the world would love to have a house with a basement, and 50% of them don't get enough water to keep the crops irrigated.

So why am I whining about a few thousand gallons of misplaced H2O, and a few ruined LP's that I would never have listened to again?

I am lucky!

Like I say, everything IS relative.
Time and water will do that: wear away at those sharp and brittle edges of fear and logic , until you end-up as a smooth stone of acceptance on a beach called Serenity where you tell yourself, "It could be worse, you could be stuck in Dayton, Ohio." (see note 2)

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Note 1 One time I complained because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet. So I asked him what he did with his old shoes, since he didn't need them anymore. He just looked at me like I was a cold hearted moron. Hey, How can you have empathy for a guy when you can't walk around in his shoes?

Note 2 - Actually, I have never been to Dayton, but my sister-in-law assures me that this is the last place on Earth anyone would want to live.