Chronic

None of us are perfect – not in mind, not in body, not in spirit. Weakness and sickness are relative.

If you say something is “wrong” with you, you’re not stating an objective, platonic fact about the universe. You’re making a comparison. For some, that comparison is to the norm for your peers – maybe your condition makes your vision worse or your resistance to disease lower. Or maybe you’re making a comparison to your former self; before this developed, you were faster or stronger or felt less pain.

This isn’t me saying that those comparisons aren’t valid. I’m just trying to gather some context for my own understanding.

So the concept of “better” is just that – you don’t become free of weakness, but maybe you can become “better.” Better than yesterday. Better than the baseline. A little less pain, a little more speed, a few deeper breaths.

Someday, something gets all of us. Some days we’ll get worse. But when we can, we get a little better.