Have you ever wondered at people’s different abilities to cope in times of stress or sorrow? How some are consistently able to assess the situation, taking stock of what is and is not important and then move forward seemingly no worse for wear? And then there are those who are brought low by even the most minor catastrophe and cannot bring themselves out of that low spot for a very long time, if ever.
Such are the vast differences between my spouse and I. While life has taken its fair share of jabs at me, I know that nothing bad can last forever. Wallowing serves only to make a crummy situation seem worse. On the other end of the spectrum is my husband, who takes life so personally that every single thing that happens, he believes is happening specifically to him and therefore believes affects him more substantially than anyone else. Being unable to distance himself from random circumstance leaves him prone to long lasting bouts of depression and nearly unbearable moodiness. And to be quite frank, it’s gotten well beyond the point of getting old.
