What I was thinking about was how there's always a whole group of problems, for any particular group, that are really very common and thus, as far as anything that might be taken with serious consideration, are considered really somewhat cliche.

Easy example, for whatever Americans might be reading: There's a kid (teenager) who obviously understands that she's bright and capable and fully able to influence her condition ... yet nonetheless, this kid's writing angsty melodramatic poetry, and the basic gist of it is, "I'm thankful for all I am, and who I am... it's only made me stronger."

Now... okay, allow me to say beforehand that the variables I offer are not the only ones, therefore to realistically drawn any conclusion from just this would be stupid. But allowing that all other things are the same -- say that one of the kids is the oldest of eight, about as poor as poor gets, and grew up with an abusive then absent dad, and an alcholic mom ... on the other hand, the other kid grew up middle-class, with a cokehead adulturous dad and a neurotic aged-beauty-queen mom who's jealous of the attention her daughter now gets...

I guess my point is -- well, anybody ever read "The Outsiders"? We were required to read it where I went to school, I don't remember for which class. Anyhow, in the story, at some point when Ponyboy, who's the main character and a poor "greaser" is talking to Cherry, who's a rich "soc", if I remember the terms accurately.

Ponyboy's saying how much better it is for the rich kids, and how they don't understand what the poor kids go through. And Cherry explains how fucked up her life is, and the conclusion, in a nutshell, is "it's rough all over".

Well, yeah. It is rough all over. But not every rough is the same as any other rough. A punch in the nose rough is very different from a club to the ribs rough, as is different from a kick in the nads rough. Sure, all three suck ... but to say you can relate to being kicked in the nads because you've been punched in the nose is stretching things a bit.

Anyway, my point was not that I had any problem with what I was reading ... in honesty, what made me think of this was that my initial response was to think, "Yeah, sad but true." and just move on.

But once I thought that, I thought -- well, Ani put it best: "There's some things you can't know, unless you've been there... but oh, how far we could go if we started to share."

And again, I'll field an easy one to make my point here: Two (het) people have some nice sweaty sex and are simply not anywhere near as careful as they should be, so now there's a pregnancy. The last thing either person ever wanted, at least at this point in their lives, is a child. Yet here they are.

Now, I think we'd all agree that this situation would suck, regardless of whether you were the guy or the girl. But my point is, as obviously closely related as the two are -- can you guys see how what each of them is going through is something the other can't immediately understand/relate to?

I won't get into all the reasons that is -- okay, 'nother example if you don't like that one. Kid born really really really rich, 'nother kid bore depressingly poor. Somehow they end up good friends. The idea is proposed that those who are simply "born lucky" owe something to those who are not -- or, another way, is that the rich should support even some of the poor...

Now, without even considering which of them thinks what -- can you see how, if they disagree, they should both listen, because each of them will be explaining a viewpoint that is unfathomable to the other?