Mirrors and Windows

I sat next to a man on the airplane yesterday who had suffered a severe spinal chord injury. Unable to walk but a few feet, he had to use his scooter to go down the ramp to the door of the plane and then, painstakingly, walk the few steps to his seat. As everyone else got seated, he asked the flight attendant for an extension to his seatbelt (he was a pretty good sized guy). The attendant had to put the seatbelt on him because his arms don't function very well. During the flight I noticed that he had to swing his arms with his body in order to bring them up to his chest. He was sitting directly across the aisle from me and so we chatted briefly during the short flight from Atlanta to West Palm Beach.
Challenges. We think we have them - and we do. But everything in our lives ought to be considered alongside the reality of what it could be rather than the myopic view of what it is only. Traveling in a plane is uncomfortable for me (I am a big guy, too) but I found little room to complain yesterday. My arms worked. My legs got me going. I didn't have to have a scooter or a wheelchair to get me around. All in all, a pretty good flight and a fortunate life. Do I have physical problems? Sure. Do they pall in comparison to others? You bet. Do I hurt when they flare up? Absolutely. Should they get the best of me when they hit? Not on your life. Muddle on through. It could be worse.
There is an old story about a King who had the carpenters in his palace remove the mirror in his bedroom and replace it with a window. When they did, the King saw the plight of his subjects first hand and it changed the way he lived and ruled the rest of his life. The moral of the story? Stop looking so much in the mirror and get a window on the world. It may change how you live as much as it did the King.