All of us have problems. We face every day with problems at home, office, schools, friends, etc. Following this logic, I am wondering why some people still happy despite having a lot of problems. Also, why some people’s problem seems to be very small but it is as if the whole world went conspiring against them. With this in mind I went on to assume three things.
1. Problems does not equate to your emotional state,
2. Problems are very relative, and
3. People have different tolerance and threshold on handling problems.
If you try and observe the rich and the poor, then you will see how these 3 assumptions I made are translated to social behaviours. To help you understand let me paint this simple picture for you.
A poor man’s problem every day is where to get provisions like food for his family. He asked himself, “Where in God’s mercy will I get money to buy food?”. In retrospect, a rich man’s concern every day is where to eat for lunch. The rich man asked himself, “This restaurant serves very slow, where in this damned area will I find a new place to eat?”. If you try and weigh the gravity of their problems you will realize that the former is far humanely degrading than the later. To simplify it, the poor man’s problem is far greater than the rich man’s problem. The one is simply trying to survive for the day and the other is just simply ranting about the service of the restaurant.
Despite this, why do we see those leaving by mere hand to mouth existence happier than a grumpy old corporate guy?
I would try to end this by thanking the random guy I saw early this morning scavenging for food. During that time I feel so desperate about myself. I am sour-graping about very small things, but it felt that I am always at the brink of being suffocated by it. That very moment I felt like a pathetic loser trying to consume myself with stupid things while the guy in front of me is shamelessly searching for something to eat and drink from the left overs.
