I can contend with any adversity.

Three letters went to the same insurance company about the same claim. The first was furious. The second was reasonable. The third contained the reference number, a copy of the policy and nothing else, and that was the one that worked.

Contending is not the same as prevailing, and it feels nothing like being capable. It is the willingness to write the third letter on a day when the first two produced silence. Most adversity is not defeated in a confrontation. It is outlasted, in instalments, by somebody quite tired.