Problems
I've been thinking about how people relate to each other's problems a lot. Everybody has problems, and everybody thinks some people have better or worse problems than them. It's natural to think that people with "better" problems should simply be happy, and appreciate that they don't have whatever problem you currently have. I feel like this a lot - sometimes when someone is talking about a problem they have, I think "wow, I wish I had that problem, my problems are so much worse!". This is obviously a dumb thought. I have the opposite too - when I have a problem that I want to talk about with someone, I rationalise not doing so by saying "they have their own problems too" or "other people have worse problems than me, I should just be grateful for my situation". These are more dumb thoughts, I am obviously not a smart guy.I understand that everybody's problems are simply the difference between their expectations and their reality. So I thought, maybe everybody's problems are the same? I think this works pretty well for white people problems, doubly so for my straightish white cis-male problems. Perhaps all problems that aren't life-threatening can be considered equal? But I am not going to make any attempt to try to argue that my problems are "the same" as somebody living below the poverty line for example, that would clearly be absurd. I delegitimise my own problems a lot because of my own situation, and maybe I am right to do so, but that doesn't mean they go away, or make me grateful for the things I do have, the "quality" of my problems, usually it just makes me feel guilty in addition. Perhaps I should be more accepting of other people's problems, and try to replace my jealousy with compassion, regardless of how trivial I think their complaints may be, and then I might have compassion for my own problems too. I'm not sure if doing so goes against human nature in general or just my nature.
I think I just wrote a post about how having problems as a white male is a problem... fuck.