From Mary Anna--Challenges come in all sizes...

When I saw that today's topic was "Challenges," my first impulse was to whine about my upcoming deadline, then I remembered that I did that in my last post.  And possibly the one before that.

I recently read a forum post by a friend who has weathered serious health challenges, including two kidney transplants.  He said that he thought that tough times come to all of us in equal doses over the period of a lifetime, and that the important thing was how you reacted to them.  I'm not altogether sure that this is true. 

When I look around me, I see people who seem to be leading charmed lives and other people who have suffered crushing blows that would level most people, but I'm not seeing the whole picture.  Maybe over a lifetime, these things do even out.  It seems that entropy would distribute troubles to all of us, and it would do it evenly, but even the laws of thermodynamics allow for outliers.  I do know that I have friends who are going through times so tough that they throw my challenges under the bright searchlight of perspective.  Here's what it looks like in my head when that happens.  In case you can't tell, the italics are me.

 I have a deadline on my novel in less than a month!!!

But my friend's husband is having radiation treatments.  Please God let them work.

 My mother's house has to be emptied of a lifetime worth of stuff, and I have to finish it before the sale goes through...three days before that deadline.

But another friend just got out of the hospital, and she doesn't know how long it's going to take her to get better.

And my math book is going to come back for revisions as soon as the novel goes in.

And another friend's daughter has been really, really sick...

And then both books will come back for revisions at the same time...

As you can see, you don't have to look far to find something that will make your own challenges dwindle into perspective.  And now I'm off to deal with today's challenge--the computer virus that does not want me to finish this book on time.  May all your challenges be so minor.  :)

 

Comments

[Mysti Berry]

Mary Anna, best of luck with your deadlines!!!

[Mary Anna]

Thanks, Mysti! The computer virus has been slain, so the only thing holding me back is...um...me. Overcoming that little obstacle should be no problem at all. :)

[Camille Minichino]

I love your thermodynamics analogy, of course.

It's very sobering to "compare" ills. I sit with aches and pains, while a couple of doors down from me a much younger woman is trying to survive blood transfusions after major surgery that didn't work. I try to be grateful that I'm well enough to have deadlines.

[Mary Anna]

I firmly believe that the laws of thermodynamics explain everything. :)

[Staci]

Mary Anna, I also find that other people's challenges absolutely put mine in perspective. I was pretty bummed last year when my agent wasn't able to sell my first book, but then I thought about my friend and her unemployed husband, who were constantly worried about how to feed their two kids, and my aunt, who was undergoing radiation treatment for her second bout with cancer, and I decided that not being published yet wasn't such a big deal after all.
Good luck on your deadline!

[Ann]

Perspective is all, I agree. Kind of reminds me of that book "Powers of Ten" (I had to go look up the title, although I remember the book very clearly). It apparently was also a film. There's a website devoted to it here: http://powersof10.com/ . Anyhow, things like this do help me put challenges into perspective as well.
Hey, I think I just figured out what I'll blog about this Thursday... :-)
And good luck with those deadlines!