Human Nature

"My horse is bigger than your horse"

Everyone can find problems with their life. Even people who seem most satifsied with themselves, their lives and their situation are almost definately dissatisfied with SOME aspect of it. If anyone across the blogosphere is, or knows of someone who is, entirely pleased with every aspect of their life, let me know, ok? It seems that human nature is to pick holes in ones existance.

It struck me earlier that a death or a serious illness, or something equally serious, would at first glance cancel out the more... mundane? issues. For example, people who are incredibly depressed over a parents divorce may be seen as having less reason to be unhappy than someone who's parents have died. Sometimes, in this situation, people are led to believe that their problems are less valid than those of others and therefore that they should feel guilty about feeling sad when others are 'worse off'.

I don't know exactly what i'm trying to say here. Basically, i'm wondering how someone can determine the reasonableness of someone else's sadness. Is it fair to try and determine someone's level of sadness from an outside perspective. Is it possible to tell how deeply someone is effected by something? The same event can have a very different impact on different people.

Is it fair to be incredibly sad about the 'littler' things in life? Family trouble, friend issues, a terrible break-up, a failed exam? I think it is. These things could cause as much pain as a death, divorce, illness, big move... It would depend on circumstance, personality, history, anything and everything.

So, i don't think that anyone should be able to feel guilty about the amount of hurt they feel over something, no matter what anyone says about how you should be feeling. You're your own person, you have the right to feel however you want to. I suppose i'm just saying that it's human nature to get down on life, over big things or little things. So, you can always justify your feelings. Blame it on mother nature! As to the extent of the sadness? I don't think it can be considered exponential to the size of the issue, because the two can't be compared, nor can they be regulated.

Have i made sense here? You still following? Hope so...

Annie