What’s better than paying $300 to have your air conditioner fixed? Writing the check while the little HVAC man is telling you that you’ll “be lucky if the entire thing lasts the rest of the season.”

Oh, that and then having the A/C die a few hours after he leaves.

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I was originally planning on leaving the post above as that singular, snarky, cynical rant, a cheap attempt at humor and at having content. But it’s amazing what a small piece of sobering news can do to one’s own whirlwind of self-pity.

This week a phone call from a friend more than put things into perspective for me. All the air conditioners in the world, all the broken garage doors, leaking gas lines and unfurnished rooms amount to nothing in the face of true, legitimate strife. And as cozy and familiar as this self-commiseration is, I can’t help but be knocked over the head with reality, forced to leave behind my own issues which now seem surprisingly trite.

It’s amazing how caught up in life I can get, not seeing the forest or the trees or anything else on the great landscape of perspective for that matter. What seems insurmountable can instantaneously be reduced to utter insignificance with but a few sentences from someone outside your own head. It’s a cruel trick of the limits of our own humanity, or else a glaring deficiency of my own character. I’m not sure which. Regardless, I’ve been blindsided by this news.

So I suppose in an open call to my future self as well as anyone else who is able to glean anything from these intentionally vague few sentences, be good to each other. As it turns out, life really isn’t about the unplanned bills or unfinished To Do list. I just wish the fresh winds of perspective could come with less of a chill.