Measuring one's suffering against that experienced by others is not an unusual tendency. The disproportionate degree of loss we have witnessed over the past year has left many struggling to make sense of where they fit into the whos-got-it-worse-hierarchy. When the world as we know it is undergoing tremendous and tumultuous shifts, how do we frame our blue days and broken hearts? In this article, writer and therapist Emily Barr explores the concept of comparative suffering and its antidote: compassion.
