Revisiting Counselor's Corner: Comparison By: Garry Barber, PhD Some years ago, I intercepted a teenage boy just before he ran away. I asked him why he felt a need to run. He answered, “Mr. Garry you don’t understand. I ain’t got a good family or a nice house like other people, I’m not smart like other people, I’m not good at sports … heck, I ain’t good at nothing like other people. I ain’t never gonna be nothin’ but a poor redneck from Pickens County who ain’t got nothin’ … I ain’t nothin’ so it don’t matter what I do!” At that moment I saw all the pain this young man felt as he expressed his deepest conviction, “I’m not … therefore, I ain’t.” Generations of disappointment and dysfunction had worked to form such thoughts in this teen’s mind as he compared himself to those around him. He had fallen prey to one of the Devil’s most effective schemes for our destruction, namely to get human beings to define self-worth in comparison to others. This downward digression goes something like this: “I don’t have what they have. I can’t do what they can do. I don’t look like they look. I’m not as smart as them. So, I am not as valuable.” | 