Since I moved to the UK, a lot of people here have asked me, “How do you find the weather?”
Given talking about the weather is a famous British pastime, I see most of them get excited, expecting me to say something like, “Ooo it’s dreadfully cold and grey, isn’t it?”
But, to their surprise, I usually respond with, “I actually quite like it!”
Yes, it’s cold, and damp, and grey, but at least it’s relatively predictable. And I emphasise “relatively” because I think weather here is more predictable than New Zealand—which is my baseline.
In New Zealand, you can pull your blinds in the morning, the sky will be clear blue, and then 30 minutes later when you arrive at work it can be bucketing down.
Much of life is relative. And if that’s true, then much of life is about understanding our own baselines, and being empathetic to the baselines and relative experiences of others.