It doesn't sound like your classmates are very clever at all. I always really enjoyed knowing the background of authors. Most of the greats over came so much and still were able to create such master pieces! If they're unable to see the big picture it's their loss. But rest assured, they will learn these life lessons one way or another. No one escapes tragedy.

I've always concidered myself a pretty compassionate, empathetic person but even I've had my moments. Several years ago our accountant lost his mother to a long battle with cancer during tax season. He really screwed up our taxes and it ended up costing us a lot of money. We didn't know that at the time, at the time I was just frustrated because he was late completing them, that he lost some of our records etc. At the time I made the comment "I'm sorry he's lost his mother, but he's a middle aged man for crying out loud! If he's not able to do his job, he shouldn't have accepted it!"

Then my father died. Until that happened I did not realize how lost you could be as an adult, how much you still depended upon your parents. A year after that, we got the notification from the IRS about the mistakes made in that return along with a HUGE bill with interest and penalties. Now don't get me wrong, I was furious! But I looked at it from a different angle. I now understood what he was going through. I was angry at the situation not him. He did the best he could do, and even though he cost us thousands of extra dollars I was able to fully understand how this could happen. And deep down I wonder how much of this was punishment for my lack of adequate compassion at the time.