Day 14 - Petra, Judgment, and Inexactness

Today I decided to check out Petra through a day trip. It was very impressive and I highly recommend checking it out. I feel fortunate to have also seen Angkor Wat and Macchu Picchu so it wasn't the first ancient ruin set I've seen. Nevertheless, well worth a visit.

One thing I've thought a little about is judgment among vitiligo patients. For example, I've noticed on several occasions other vitiligo folks checking the state of my vitiligo and certainly, I have done the same. This must be done with great consideration, however. Sometimes, I usually hear folks say, "you're fine. you don't need to do anything. I can't even see anything. So and so has it much worse." I understand where this is coming from, but at the same time, we need to respect where each person is coming from. Someone who has 80% depigmentation may be perfectly fine with himself while someone who is 10% may not have the same disposition to accept this new version of himself. Like many things in our world, we tend to first of all, judge others based on what we ourselves think we can and should handle and second of all, view others based solely on what you can see of them rather than what is the reality. I think it's important to have confidence and belief that the person is doing what he or she thinks is best instead of contradicting and casting further judgement. I believe it is better to assume the person has more information rather than less and is using that information to inform decisions that are best for himself/herself.

Medical treatment can be quite inexact and approximate. Today I did not formally get the sun I have gotten in the previous days, but because I've conditioned my body right now, I feel fine with not having gone gung-ho with "not missing any days." At first, I was vigilant on minutes in the water, minutes on each side of the body, etc. but now I know that I'm getting enough of everything and can approximate the treatment and respond to what my body is telling me. I've also come to accept the fact that I will likely look very similar to how I arrived here 2 weeks ago. That's okay. Anything worth doing requires time.