Added 19 Jan 05 at 9:29 am:
Like for example, putting on a brand new pair of fishnet hose that are not only very flattering but that you found on sale, and then, just as you get to the office, having one of the hooks from your coat snag a hole in the thigh. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!
Or having a broken charger, going in to have it replaced (as per warranty), and completely getting the run-around. (Why does technology hate me?)
Or how about realizing that your life is so wonderful, that you’re forced to complain about things like pantyhose and cell phones, and then feeling guilty and spoiled and ungrateful about this realization.
Texan New Yorker 
Thursday, 19 January 2006 at 10:44 pm
amen… I’m really glad that I read this post, it helped me a lot.
Friday, 20 January 2006 at 3:51 am
Last weekend, Ara’s 14-year-old cousin met us to go see a show, having just left a church youth group meeting/discussion of the crisis in Darfur (in western Sudan). For the duration of the day (and until further notice), whenever she whined about *anything* (and 14-year-olds tend to whine a lot) I would scream “Oh YEAH, Emily, YOU have it REALLY ROUGH — you could be in DARFUR RIGHT NOW, you know. DARFUR!”
I am a terrible person.
However, I also remember that once on Ally McBeal (when you have no scripture to quote, you make do) a judge asked Ally, “And just why are your problems so important, Miss McBeal?” And she answered: “Because they’re mine.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about a mentor of mine who is very ill right now, and casting my own daily battles in terms of this: not belittling my own problems, but being a bit more at peace with them (because otherwise I’d end up detached or paralyzed, and I know my mentor would want neither of these, nor would he respond well to being used as such a false idol.) There’s a thin line between feeling grateful and feeling guilty/spoiled. I’ll take a healthy serving of the former and none of the latter, thank you very much. Part of what makes us human, individual (and not gods, because a view from above is not our place) is the limitation of our perspective, I think.
Besides, you could be in DARFUR right now.