I have grown quite weary of people needing to make a trip to the emergency room because they have a hangnail... and once they get there, they insist that the waiting room must me a "safe space" for them... and their emotional support ferret.

Not that I entirely blame them for their predicament; at least some of the responsibility lies with a generation of "snowplow parents" who moved every tiny obstacle and setback out of their kids' way, creating an illusion of what life actually is, that is nothing more than that: an illusion.

Not to take anything away from those who are sincerely suffereing, through no fault of their own, like my late stepfather.