Relative versus Absolute

Recently, a friend of mine tells me I’m a good piano player. Has she heard a concert pianist? What about Elton John? Or Liberace? Someone else tells me her life is complicated and I see that she worries. What about children in developing countries who don’t have enough to eat? Is ‘complicated’ bad? Another person vents because he cannot decide which woman he likes. Is this some terrible curse? Does he expect sympathy?

We perceive our world within its relative context. I don’t know the greatest piano player, the poorest child, or the most-loved individual in the world. I haven’t met the happiest person and I don’t know whose heart was broken in the most malicious way. Frankly, I don’t care.

s.d.