Lately, I find myself coming back to two stories.
Well, they aren't really stories. They are events that happened to two different people that I know.
The stories are what I made up about those events.
The first person went through a life-changing surgery. It was the kind of surgery that left them without much of an immune system. This means they need to now live their life based on rules from a binder that their doctors and nurses put together.
The second person had a terrible injury to their left leg. It's a several month recovery process, and it means that their left leg cannot bear weight for at least a few months.
Crutches and a boot will be their constant companion in the short-term.
***
The reason I find myself coming back to these two stories is because of one word.
Comparison.
Comparison to a pre-binder-led life and any moment before the leg injury.
I do not like comparison. In fact, as much as I tell our kids not to use this word, I hate comparison.
Yet, I have come to accept that it's just something we're wired to do.
Comparison is a concept. I've found that if you're trying to rid yourself of a certain concept, it's really hard to just not think about it. It's practically impossible.
What's slightly easier, is to replace it with a new concept.
This is where I find continuums very useful.
What new concept can we try to replace comparison with?
Comparison is either backward-looking or sideways-looking.
If comparison sits on one end of the continuum, then something that is forward-looking must sit on the other, right?
If comparison asks questions like, "What was before?" or "What is now?" then I think whatever sits on the opposite end of the continuum asks things like, "What can be tomorrow?"
I'd like to propose comparison's opposite.
Fresh starts.
A fresh start means all the decks are cleared. You cannot try to live your life as you once did, you have to build your life anew.
***
The reason I find myself coming back to the two stories from earlier is because in both of those cases, the two people did not choose those events. They just happened.
In a way, they were forced into fresh starts.
What's interesting is that fresh starts can also be something we choose.
