I can't think of anything more tragic than instantly losing my entire family. It's a story I've heard play out more than once.

- Remember the 2002 mid-air collision over the skies of Germany between a Bashkirian Airlines plane carrying school children and a DHL cargo plane? On board that Russian plane was a wife and her two children. When they perished, the father completely broke down and actually wound up finding and killing the air traffic controller whom he believed was responsible for the accident (even though investigators determined that the controller was not to blame).

- A few years ago, there was a news report about a car accident here in Los Angeles where a drunk driver slammed into a van with a woman and three children, killing all four victims immediately. I don't even know if I could handle how the husband/father of that family felt in the aftermath of that accident.

My idea of misery varies! Here's what come to mind now, from the easiest type of misery to the hardest:

1. Loving someone that doesn't love you back.

2. Having physical  pain that doesn't go away with painkillers.

3. Dying in war.