Insight..

There are times when one can have a view, a glimpse into another person's life. Given that perspective we can have many different reactions.

One reaction can be disgust with the person, depending on what perspective we are given. Another could be sorry at the endurance that the person must bear. Another could be compassion for the person whose life we glimpse that small view of, even if for just one moment. In all of these, the one thing in common is that we have learned. We have seen life from a perspective that is not usually our own.

Of course there is one other possible scenario in all of this, and it is perhaps the most sad one of all. This is when we sit in utter despair for ourselves. So consumed with our own "suffering" about what is not "normal" to us, we miss our time to glean a bit of knowledge on how someone else does it, how someone else copes, how well we have it when things are, in what we ourselves define as "normal".

I've had this experience many times in life and I will say that I have been in on each of these roads, yes, even the last sad one.

Of course of late I have had the unusual experience of being the object of the perspective. I've been the one whose life is being looked at, at least one aspect of it. And I ma sad to report that the person who had the insight into a struggle which haunts me daily, at this point in time, is moving down the road of the last.

You see what they are experiencing is something that will not last, and if things get really hard for them, they can get out. But what many tend not to think of or consider is the fact that the person that must continue in this struggle, like me, has no hope of every switching medicines, getting the right pair of glasses, or what ever other solution may present itself to those just visiting my struggle for a time. Instead of appreciating the struggle that we must fight through every day, they blindly and as quickly as they can, move back to that place where they are comfortable. They leave behind the opportunity to place value on the struggle. Instead it becomes an annoyance and "burden" for them that I, or we as the case may be, continue to struggle with it.

But ultimately, what can I do? What can I, as the object of the "study" do? Well, I can learn and make sure that I don't retrace the steps of the person who refused to learn.

Appreciate the struggles of others, even when you may see them as silly, weak, or otherwise. Remember, at one point in your life, you most likely struggled with the very thing that has become, or has been for a long while the thorn in the flesh of the person you are "tolerating.