Mountain or Molehill

“Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.” Nicholas Udall, 1548

It basically means don’t exaggerate (the severity of) a situation.

But, what if we used the inverse of it? Don’t make a molehill out of a mountain, does that mean we are exaggerating less or just in a different direction?

I’ve seen memes that show the top of a glacier, small in comparison to the size of the unseen glacier that lies below the water. Would that be the making a molehill out of a mountain? 

Most people only see what is above the surface. Unless they have x-ray vision or can read minds, there is no way of knowing exactly what one single person is trying to cope with on a day to day basis. Some, it is an hour by hour basis, where other’s it could be month by month.

I think the most difficult thing for a human to do is not judge by what the cover shows. If the paintings of Adam and Eve, nude in the Garden of Eden, had not been labeled as such, but just painted on the cover of a book, would religious individuals open the book and read it, or condemn it as filth? I ask, because it could very well be the cover photo of the Holy Bible. I am not trying to be sacrilegious, I am just posing a question I have often answered.

I have seen some graphic novels in a children/young teen section of the library that were placed there because simply because they are “comics.” Thankfully, my ten year old son knew what was drawn, and the acts happening in the graphic novel were NOT for his eyes. Another way of judging a book by it’s cover.

But, my molehill out of a mountain, or glacier, is more than just that.

On my surface, you may see I am tired, moving slowly, smiling, laughing, cringing now and again, but isn’t that everyone? 

Below the surface, there is so much more. Praying that when I lift the cup from the table does not result in it being spilled on the table, me, or anyone near me. Hoping I will be able to get through part of a meal before having to change hands because my right one hurts too much from holding the utensil. Having to buy a super protective case for my phone because my hands will twitch or give out on me when holding it, then fall and break. Calculating how much I can do at one time before I have to relax, because if I do not stop, I pay the price a little later in the day or it could be 2 days in bed because I can no longer get my joints to work without them screaming at me. Dreading the two days a week I have to receive shots, not because of the side effects (I have none), but because I am just so tired of being a pin cushion, and never knowing if they are truly going to help me. And those, my friends, are just the first few layers under the surface of my glacier.

There are days I am able to raise the surface, so what people see it just a smile, a laugh, and the cringe once in a while. Those are my good days. Those are the days I can walk close to a mile, kick a ball with my son, eat spaghetti or a steak without crying, and drink from a cup that doesn’t have a spill proof lid.

I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. I want you to understand and learn what it is like to live with an autoimmune disease or a chronic illness. I want you to look at me, when I have to park in handicap or use the scooter at the store, not with disbelief but with the acceptance that, “Hey, she just might be having a bad day and needs the extra help.”