A Story about Pain
There once were two
people, locked in a
prison called
life
One person got their pinky finger cut off in a freak accident.
The other person lost their whole hand.
There was nothing either of them could do about it because
shit happens, and shit can happen to anyone.
If you ask the pinkyless prisoner, what hurt him more -
his friend losing a hand, or him losing him pinky.. of
course him losing his pinky has hurt him more, because it was
his pinky finger! And with the
other prisoner,
vice versa.
Moral: No one else can truly feel your
pain or understand it. Don't look for them to validate it for you.
This little analogy came to me while waiting at a stoplight. Although mostly written here to apply to emotional issues, using a physical issue seemed to get the point across more clearly. If this writeup bothers you for any reason other than my writing style/punctuation, I suggest you work out your issues. The concept seriously bothered me years ago, but now I know the real meaning of it. I am in no way implying here that there is no such thing as compassion, sympathy or empathy. Just that you can't experience being another person and feel what they feel in that exact situation, because you are not them and never will be... well, you could put on their shoes.. but your feet still aren't theirs. yep.