On a Scale from What to What?

When I hear somebody sigh, ‘Life is hard,’ I am always tempted to ask, ‘Compared to what?’

--Sydney J. Harris

When describing something, how many times have we used the “Scale from one to ten” method? Loads, right? We label one side of the scale with an adjective and put the opposite of that word on the other side. Hot to cold. Fierce to tame. And usually, we associate concrete things to these adjectives. Fire and ice; a lion and a lamb.

We create these scales and yardsticks in our minds because it’s easier to wrap our heads around a concept if we have something to compare it to.

Leave it to the notion of “existence” to be an exception to that. I mean, going back to the quotation above, when asked how hard living is, is it right to answer this using our yardsticks? If so, what are we supposed to put on each end of the stick? (Life and Death? Life and... (someone else's) Life?)

Tama na nga. Puro ka tanong eh. I guess it just goes to show that life is way too big and elusive to be placed on the measuring instruments in our heads.

And maybe I’m over-analyzing again. For all I know, Sydney J. Harris merely wanted to tell us to stop complaining about life and just start living it.