Just an FWP

Do you follow the news? I don't blame you if not. The news is shocking. It's so bad that I literally don't allow my young child to watch TV news shows yet. This week's news? A baby was shot dead in Brooklyn. Gang rapes are on the rise in India. Seamus Heaney died. Polluted oceans are contaminating fish populations. And let's not forget Syria. The list goes on and on. Every day. Every minute. People experience suffering on a grand scale.

That said, I've lately been trying to remind myself that most of my problems are merely First World Problems. FWP. Not all of them - I've had my share of job layoffs, financial troubles, illnesses, family loss, relationship woes, etc. Yet I'm trying to take a step back and put my daily problems in perspective, and not let them feel so stressful. Here are some of my most recent problems:

It has taken AT&T 2 weeks, 8 hours of phones calls, 7 customer service reps and 5 installation techs to install and fix my cable and Internet; it's an FWP. My sink disposal exploded water and food (ew - what was that?) and flooded the cabinet with an inch of water, rendering my sink unusable until a plumber can fix it; another FWP.

I dropped leftovers all over the hall floor (really????) on my way in from the meal my healthy, happy family just enjoyed in a restaurant. Add some PMS on top of all that? Still just a Midol FWP.  I got 7 mosquito bites at my aunt's lovely backyard dinner. My car battery died curbside at LAX in the Loading Only Zone with my annoyed preschooler in the car. A family vacation got postponed. I got a ding in my pedicure. Well, you get the drill.

It's not that my problems aren't annoying - oh, they are! - or real to me. But they are small and manageable in the scheme of the world and its horror. Next time you get frustrated when your AC breaks during a heat wave and you have to spend your savings to fix it instead of take that cruise you've been planning, just remember: FWP.