Reality struck me the other day, that I am now overly sensitive to ANY mention of cancer or people dying.
Usually I read blogs and articles and don't get worked up. If I don't agree with what the author says, I don't feel deeply enough about it to do anything, same goes for if I do agree. I see no point in letting someone elses words seriously affect how I feel.
However, mention cancer and I am immediately on a higher sensitivity level.
I was reading a blog that I frequently read. The author has their own sense of style that can sometimes seem harsh towards her children, but I understand that she is writing and creating a more entertaining blog, and that - more than likely - it is embellished for entertainment value. However, the last post I read really got under my skin, and still, a couple weeks later, is bothering me.
Do you want to know what it was she said?
She mentioned that she had used dish soap to clean out her child's fish tank, not realizing that the residue of the soap would ultimately kill the fish after she put them back in it.
She said that the fish got slower and slower, because of the dish soap, and they were slowly dying. She said "that it was like watching a cancer patient die."
It took all I had not to comment and say, "How DARE you compare a goldfish dying to a person with cancer! I hope you NEVER have to go through actually watching someone die from cancer, because I guarantee watching a goldfish die would be a million times more pleasant."
But I didn't comment...and I won't. But to this day, it still bothers me that she drew that comparison.
And then I realized, I am WAY overly sensitive about things. I am so careful about how I say things, or what I say because to someone else, it could be something they are very sensitive about.
I read this blog post:
About a women whose husband had a traumatic brain injury and for a few years, just wasn't the same and they really struggled. Her perspective on how everybody is going through something and that a huge amount of pain and suffering is not physically visible really got to me. Since losing Ben, I am always more aware of emotional pain, I try to remember that everybody has something they are going through, no matter how big or small, and that everyone deserves a little kindness and empathy.
I'm not really sure what the point of this whole post is, other than to say that I am going to try to remember - always - that even though I haven't experienced all that others have, and I haven't had the same trials as others, that we are all deserving of love and kindness. We need to show more compassion to others.
And it would be best to not compare a dying goldfish to such a real and painful human experience.
