Today, I recognized that I’m surrounded by people who have a much more difficult life than I do. I have been referring to the majority of people as disabled for years. However, I couldn’t see distinctly how their difference from me hindered them. After all, when I refer to “disabled people”, I’m referring to my superiors at work; government officials with decision-making power over my life; and even the wealthiest people in the world who – clearly – have it much easier than me. Right?

I work in a sales-type job and had a bad day at work today: I made no sales. Late in the shift, I started acting desperately. A co-worker basically said that she enjoyed watching me suffer.

I haven’t had a bad day in the past few weeks, which was enough time for me to forget that a person acts desperately when they don’t know what else to do. I had no options today, no control over my life. I was disabled. It felt painful. If my financial well-being depended on making a sale today, I would have had to “cheat”.

It took me years to figure out how to get and keep a job on my terms – that is, without “cheating”. It’s taken me almost 35 years to figure out how to be satisfied with life without any vices. I had no idea that everyone wants those same answers; that no one wants to work extremely hard or to be miserable and addicted. That being disabled means having no other choice but to “cheat” in life.

I thought that I was surrounded by bad people but I’m not. S** work is a direct path to the benefits provided by freakishly evolved relational skills: financial survival. In fact, God is just; because s** work is the only path to financial wealth. That means that the hardest workers in the world are also the most privileged. I’d been very resentful about this but I’m accepting that the suffering people around me have no other choice and deserve every blessing.