Sometime ago I left work via a ride from a co-worker early... I was feeling sick and in pain.

Now the doctor says the same thing to everyone who comes in complaining of pain; "On a scale of one to ten how bad is the pain".

So I say to the doctor "I have been shot, stabbed, had shrapnel up and down my back, fell off a rope in the army, had a tooth break revealing the nerve and how many can say that? Is pain not relative".

He agreed whole heartedly with my statement and quipped that they have to guess based on the patients reply what the pain was and who/what the patient is.

But even he is restricted by what he has seen. A war doctor see's different patients than a gynocologist see's different patients than a country doctor.

It is all relative to the askers viewpoint and the asked's viewpoint.

Which brings me to todays lesson, relativity. No not Einsteins theory, but the other sort.

You see the relative poverty difference of a poor person in America versus a poor person in Africa is quite the difference.

Excluding the true homeless (a much hyped number since housing is provided to a large number, but they are still technically called homeless) in the United States, our poor have a house, electricity, running (clean) water, sanitary restroom equipment, and access to medical care for life threatening conditions.

The average poor in Africa has no electricity, no running water, no quick access to a hospital.

Poverty, like pain, is relative.

What else is relative?

Droughts. A drought in the United States means a region has to import water perhaps. A drought in Australia would have dire consequences.

Europeans argue gasoline prices are relative... as they (mostly, not all) pay higher costs for gasoline than the United Staes does.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.... that means it is relative to.

Consider this food for thought... something to mull over.