Beyond compare

During my recent flu, I emailed a buddy of mine and complained of some of the symptoms, both physical and psychological. He has been through a hell of a lot of illness in his life and still has to cope with a variety of conditions that make his life a challenge. So I put a line in the email acknowledging that.

His response was sympathetic, but he included a reproach. No comparing of troubles is to be allowed. Just because he's had more illness, he said, is no reason to make believe I wasn't sick.

True enough. If we all compared our misfortunes to those with greater, how many of us would be allowed to notice, much less, talk about what bothers us?

But there are galactic differences in suffering.

In my cyber-wandering, I stumbled across this story about Billy Lynch, a young Marine in WWII, captured by the Japanese and missing...until now. His body has finally been found in China, and the story of his mistreatment, torture and death at the hands of the Japanese can now be told.


Courage like that. Beyond words. Beyond compare.

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