leave me alone, I'm reading

I started off being appalled by this book. The author loses a bunch of money.....yet, she just cannot part with the accoutrements of her wealthy life. She won't part with her Manhattan apartment or Hermes bags.

But actually, what I got out of this book is the confirmation of something I have suspected for a long time: everything is relative,and everyone is the same. Ok, so the author has to sell her vacation house. To her, that feels as bad -in the moment- as someone like me having to sell my car. It won't drastically change my life, but goshdarnit, I like my car! Everyone feels loss, everyone feels betrayal, everyone feels scared. Just because we like to compare ourselves to each other, and we have tendencies to play the I'm-worse-off-than-you game, doesn't mean we don't all know what these bad feelings feel like.

Anyway, I didn't much like the author, but her writing was light & easy to read, and her unintentional message made me feel alright with the world and alright with my life.