A very useful and spiritually aware idea which takes its cue from Buddhism, possibly? And thank you so much for this beautifully expressed reminder.

We are all suffering in some way, (although in the sense of material suffering such as economic inequality, quick comparisons between North America and, say, undeveloped nations don't hold up a lot under scrutiny.)

We are blessed in North America with an almost obscene level of abundance that the pandemic disrupted, so that many people, including me, first became aware of that abundance by the fact of its absence in the early days - days of empty supermarket shelves. That was a sight I had literally never seen before in 65 years.

But move into the realm of emotional and spiritual (for lack of a better word) need; to think of separation, loss, physical and emotional trauma, the mystery of god, the knowledge of our own impending death and the constant agony of aching desire and anxious striving, is to realize that all humans are, in some way, at any given moment, in pain. Material wealth apparently isn't the cure nor poverty the cause, necessarily.

This, of course, is the cliché of the happy peasant and the miserable, miserly rich man, but clichés do occur, after all, because their grain of glib truth is so self-evident that we don't need the reminder.

Only someone who is a master of the "respond vs. react" emotional choice can encounter anger, contempt and entitlement with anything approaching equanimity.

I'm certainly nowhere near that goal, but the virtue and the blessing, as always, are in the humility of the attempt.

DR