When I arrived home, that is when I discovered that my wallet had disappeared. Somewhere between getting on the tram in Amsterdam and getting off the train in Gouda, a clever pickpocket had robbed me without me even noticing it.

That evening the news showed scenes of devastation caused by the earthquake in Pakistan, the death toll having reached eighty-thousand.

My dismay is merely a small droplet in the massive ocean of human suffering. So what do I have to complain about?