Another species

I’m prone to trying to beat my self-pity to death with the big picture: “other people have it way worse.” Perspective reassurance has limits, and there are days when I don’t want to hear it, but it’s powerful, especially if you look at the really big picture. As an amateur student of history, I’m well aware that I’ve lived a life so blessed by peace, prosperity, and privilege that most people in history would hardly have recognized me as homo sapiens. My time on this planet been the opposite of nasty, brutish, and short.

A bit of relatively trivial suffering reminds me of that, and brings me part way back down to earth.