to watch Anne Frank on tv tonight and think.....

[ImsorryWilson]

there are worse things than pandemics.

Not exactly a novel thought but still.....

But you're setting the bar quite low in terms of how much quality of life we should hope for.

It's true we should always hope for better, but we're not automatically entitled to better when things go wrong. From the Nazis to a pandemic, people get through as best they can, we can hope as much as we like, but better is not guaranteed.

What channel was this on?

Some absolute bellend on Radio 5 this morning compared his isolation at an Aussie hotel for 2 weeks after flying in from abroad to his Fathers Prisoner of War experience...He went on to say that he didn't have a balcony and had to plan his meals routine and exercise routine...I wondered if he called room service and looked up Joe Wicks or had to do hard manual labour and live on rations....

"But you're setting the bar quite low in terms of how much quality of life we should hope for."

this is making me do a rueful chuckle.

I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank when I was about 16 and feeling so ashamed of myself. My own diaries were full of self-indulgent waffle about boys and acne and how my parents were, like, sooo annoying. It shut me up.

You don't suddenly feel better about your own situation because someone had it worse decades before you.

The point is not to feel better because other people have it worse than you. The point is to gain the perspective that our own hardships and difficulties are really not the big when compared to what other people have had to go through throughout history. Recognizing that can help us adopt a more stoicial approach to life.

Yes ^ this.

I don't feel good about the fact that some people place suffered more, but it does put my position in context, and helps me focus on the positives in my life.

Yesss!! @NotDavidTennant Really well put.

The point is not to feel better because other people have it worse than you. The point is to gain the perspective that our own hardships and difficulties are really not the big when compared to what other people have had to go through throughout history. Recognizing that can help us adopt a more stoicial approach to life.

^This is very well put.