Have I learned to care about other people yet? Pain is a miserable blinder. Much of my life has been spent licking my wounds, wondering what was wrong with me, and grieving my losses. I was to distracted to notice what was going on with anyone else. I couldn’t see beyond my own pain. There is an old cliché that says, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” but that simply isn’t true. What doesn’t kill us nearly kills us. In fact, it often leaves us lying alongside the road battered, bleeding, and begging to die. What makes us stronger is when someone else comes alongside of us, picks us up, dresses our wounds, and cares for us during our healing process. The goodness, kindness, and caring of other people is something we all need. No one gets through life without getting blindsided by trauma or tragedy at some point. And, since we all end up on the receiving end of pain, we should all be sufficiently motivated to be used as a balm that aids in the healing of someone else. We just have to be willing and able to see beyond our own pain to the pain and suffering of others.