Should I feel sorry for myself?

Are our complaints petty or real? A shoe mender I knew had a sign on his wall: I had no shoes and I felt sorry for myself until I met a man who had no feet. Missing water when the well runs dry became our recent uneasy reminder that climate change is real. It’s only when something goes wrong, we realise that things we took for granted – position, wealth, health, love – can change from better to worse.

Everyone has some addiction; harmless ones are controlled by a little willpower, serious...