Luxury problems

“You may not complain, many people would like to be in your position!” I’ve heard this more than once. “Don’t complain about your weight, everyone wants to lose weight and be like you.” Why is it ok for people to complain if they think they’re overweight, but not ok to complain if you’re underweight? There are too many men who want more from me than I am prepared to give. “Oh, that’s a luxury problem. Would you rather have men ignore you and think you’re ugly and boring?” Well, no.

I would rather be rich and healthy than poor and ill. But the problem with problems is: you usually do not get to choose and they don’t dissolve after being compared to greater problems of people on the other side of the world. Of course, I’d rather have a men plague than suffer from hunger. Or have my house destroyed by a tsunami. Or lose my family in a war. Or be raped in Darfur. Or be born with AIDS. Or… But the point is – I live in a country that is not at war, where tsunamis don’t happen and where there is no hunger. Netherlands has other problems: cancer, asthma, weird allergies and obesity. And just like a girl in Darfur cannot chose whether she’d be raped by a gang of soldiers or have asthma, I cannot chose whether I’d have men annoying me with their advances or have my house vanished in a storm. Obviously I would have chosen for the men, but I didn’t have any choice. And this theoretic exercise in pain comparison doesn’t make my problem dissolve or even become smaller.

Apparently, if your problem is not the same as the problem of the majority it may easily be dismissed by the majority. I have to be very careful in order not to lose weight and have too many men wanting more from me – luxury problems.


There’s one more thing that’s bugging me: why do strawberries and tomatoes taste the same in this country?