Stuck in a rock,
Stuck in a mine,
Stuck in a flood,
Stuck in a mire, ...

What difference
Does it make,
When there is no help,
And you cannot make it out
By yourself?

Going through
A long, painful,
Terminal disease,
A huge debt
Unable to repay,
Thrown to the dump
By your loved ones, ...

What is less severe,
What is worse?
Unless we are
In someone else's
Shoes,
No one knows.

How can we say
To someone
Who doesn't have legs,
"Cheer up, man.
Do you think that's hard?
At least you have arms!"

Or to the one
Whose wife has gone
With another man,
"That's okay, don't fret.
There are more women
Out there."

Carefully analyzed,
To the conclusion
We arrive
That suffering is,
Contextual, unique,
And deeply,
Personal.

As illnesses, finances,
Broken hearts,
Hatred, injustice,
And other
Devastating maladies,
In their lives
Take their toll,
People, reluctant
But willfully,
End it all,
Feeling and thinking
Life is not worth it
Any more.

To an outsider,
Your problems
Lighter than others'
Might appear,
But the real weight
Is on the shoulders
Of the one
Carrying the load.

Let us truly share
Each-other's burdens,
Instead of using
Left-overs
And empty words.

========================
"Bear ye one another's burdens, and
so fulfill the law of Christ."
-The Bible, Galatians 6:2 & 10