What's annoying me today? When people egotistically discuss their painful emotions. For example, when people say,"only I know what I went through when my dog died." Or, last week when my mother-in-law said, "you have no idea how painful it is for me to go back to my father's house." OK people guess what? You don't have a monopoly on pain! Did you know there are billions of other humans on the planet, and as humans we are genrally endowed with great capacity to experience emotion? Yah, it's true! Everyone deals with pain. Sure there are different experiences, degrees, and brands of pain but in the end, it's just one of the facts of the human condition. So if you want to share your feelings with me because you need sympathy and empathy and compassion, don't preface or qualify what you say with any version of, "you have no idea what this pain is like," or "You have no idea how much stress I'm under." It's alienating. And you won't get my sympathy, you'll get my scorn.
