10/28/2026: Ponderings on Personal Purgatories
We all have a list of things we hate, from minor pet peeves to activities that make our stomach churn when someone suggests that we do them. But what if the worst item on our list was the purgatory penance we were forced to pay? What if we had to perform that task or suffer the annoyance from something or someone we can’t stand for an undetermined amount of time, stuck in our misery until we can right some mortal wrong? That sure would put into perspective the things that truly bother us, and the ones that really are trivial at the end of the day.
For some, things like grocery shopping or completing jigsaw puzzles are an insufferable chore. Wandering packed aisles with low-stock or unavailable items and putting all the pieces together only to find a puzzle piece missing would be a worst nightmare realized. For others, playing board games at parties or having to wait for someone who can never make up their mind to actually make up their mind are unspeakable punishments. Not hearing or understanding the game rules or cringing at a millionth, “I don’t know, what do you think?” is enough to send anxious hearts into palpitations and make people want to throttle others to make the madness stop.
Maybe for some people, it’s an infinite tower of laundry or dishes. For others, perhaps it’s being sassed by an AI customer service robot or an inbox full of sent and unanswered complaints to a company that’s doing nefarious things. Maybe it’s sitting in stalled bumper-to-bumper traffic, without being able to move even an inch forward. Maybe it’s being forced to listen to someone yell-talk about trivial matters in an inappropriate locale, or dealing with all those, “Can I speak to your manager?” people in a neverending line.
Maybe it’s being crammed shoulder to shoulder in an elevator, stuck at the back while your desired floor keeps passing you by on a loop. Maybe it’s being interrupted mid-sentence forever, never getting a word in edgewise. Maybe it’s a long-winded argument about whether or not a certain brand, restaurant, or movie is better than another, with neither side making headway in pleading their case. Maybe it’s having a dream where you’re supposed to get something at the end, only to jolt awake before the conclusion, over and over and over, etc. Maybe it’s a looming thundercloud filled with rain that never relinquishes a drop.
Whatever the case may be, I bet we all balked at at least one of these things, when presented with the possibility of having to deal with it for as far ahead as we can see, never changing or ending as long as we live. How could one possibly escape if there’s no chance to break the endless cycle? How long before we’re driven mad by never getting the last half-gallon of milk at the supermarket, or never finding that missing puzzle piece that was never in the box to begin with?
All of this, of course, is just a fun thought experiment that means nothing. At least we have the power to change our circumstances and attitudes in our mortal lives, if we so choose. But this presents an interesting question: How able and willing are we to break free from our personal purgatories?