The grand scheme of self-pity; it promises everything but gives little to no value at all. If you want to find someone to pity, how about finding a baby? They are so cute and innocent, often becoming the center of attention in a room filled with people. But they literally don’t know anything! Watching them learn can be downright painful and at the same time, mildly amusing when we know they are not injured. Have you ever seen them learn how to balance and stand on their own? Then they must learn to walk. Things that will eventually become easy for them are some of the hardest things in the world for them to do at first. Repeatedly they get up and fall back down. Over and over. Imagine for a moment what it would be like to fall on your face a hundred times for no reason.

While watching this scene play out, I feel so bad for the baby. I want to tell them how to walk. If the baby had the cognitive ability to process thoughts and speak, I am positive they would ask for help. Unfortunately for the baby, they have not learned how to communicate yet. So, they continue their young journey in life, learning things the hard way in the school of hard knocks. Continually falling over and banging their heads on things, it is rough living. Everything learned seems to come the hard way, through experience.

If we had to put ourselves in their shoes again, after the first two minutes, we’d be sick of it! Thankfully though, our brains continued to learn and process things. We started learning how to communicate with others. By that point, we started getting into all kinds of things and a new means of learning developed. No longer did we always have to get banged up and bruised, trying to simply get through life. We now had a new option, to learn from others. We made friends and played with other children our age.

One day, we saw our buddy Joey run down the hallway face first into a door. All of a sudden, his face changed into that awestruck face that says I can’t believe what just happened. Then came the tears as little Joey cried, moaning loudly for all to hear his pain. After witnessing the event, our brain informed us that if we run face first into a door, we are not going to like it. Of course, we still had a choice. After all, things like that might only happen to people like Joey. But I don’t recommend seeing how far that way of thinking will get you.

Suffer the same painful fate as others or begin to learn from their mistakes without having to make them yourself.