There's A Lot Of Pain Out There

I was driving a gal confined to a wheel-chair from the hospital a few days ago. I have a job as a Non-Emergency Medical Transport driver. I'd picked her up from a wound care clinic and she was missing one leg. You can connect the dots.
I was struck by a comment she made. Her comment was, "I wish I could've taken a taxi."
Now initially, that sounds like a slap on our company and our customer service. I think I responded, "I'm sorry to hear that. Was there anything in specific we could have done better?"
She clarified, "No! You guys are fine.
"What I meant is that if I wasn't sick like this, I wouldn't have to use medical transportation - I could've just taken a cab. Because I'm in a wheelchair, I can't take a cab. In the same way, I also wish I could drive myself rather than take a cab. But I can't, because I'm in this wheelchair."
To cut to the chase, her disease had radically changed her life - and not for the better. She spoke of loss. I'm sure she felt pain - obviously physical pain. Certainly, there was emotional pain.
Pain was her life, now.
Loss was her life, now.
These were her 'new normal.'
There are a lot of these folks in this situation - we pick them up and drop them off for medical appointments every day.
Of course, there is the more abstract pain that folks in the middle and upper classes experience: anxiety, loss, injury, disease, debilitating stress. There's a lot of pain in this world.
It is tempting to say that physical pain is more 'real' than the pain of loss, crushed dreams, betrayal, relational destruction, purposelessness, and more. It is a false notion. Pain is real to the person experiencing it.
And we kind-of know this but try desperately to push it away. Nearly all of us have our own pain and being empathetic with another's pain merely increases our own. Additionally, we can only take so much. Extending compassion to everyone leads rapidly to compassion fatigue.
There is a lot of pain out there and little in the way of relief in this world.