The No-Name Post

Can't think of a clever name, or even not so clever name for this post. Just another ramble, I guess.

I was talking to my mother last night about how people react to different situations. She and I are fighters. We're made of pretty strong stuff. Even if we're feeling week, we push through and try harder to get back our equalibrium. We've been in some pretty bad situations that we've come out of, because when we're under the gun, we focus and do whatever we have to get out of a bad situation.

Some people come up swinging. Some people get paralyzed and get mired down by hard times, and sink lower into the quick-sand of depression. I have a couple of friends like this. It doesn't matter how much you talk to them, they need to be ready to either pull themselves out of the muck or search for something solid to grasp onto, like a helping hand or solid land. Something.

I'm not made that way. If I lay down during times like that, I feel like I'm dying. I tend to take on a lot of tasks to keep my mind off things and I go on a kind of manic autopilot. I don't act predictably if I'm backed into a corner. I'll react in the least likely manner to get myself out of the corner. The least likely way I'd respond is to succumb under force.

A while back I was placed in a situation in which my opponent (for lack of a better term at the moment) thought he could force me into responding the way he wanted me to. There was one way I could back him down, but I risked being hurt in the process. So I could succumb, or I could leap into the fire and take him with me. I chose the latter.

He backed down and by some miracle I wasn't hurt. He knew where I lived. For a while I looked over my shoulder, my back completely up, but he never came after me.

I'm not saying this is the most intelligent route to take. It's the only route I can take. And so I have little sympathy or patience for people who lay down and wait to die. This may be a flaw in my personality, because it's not a very nice way to be. But for me, the best way to be a friend is to offer a friend a kick on the butt. I offer an ear, then make suggestions and point them to resources that could help them. But to pat somebody on the ass and tell them it's okay to wallow is not my way.

Life is too short. There are too many preditors sniffing out weakness in this world. Making yourself vulnerable, the weakest in the pack, is a sure way to get eaten.

If I need to, I do my shaking and crying afterward. The release of built up tension. I tend to feel the magnitude of danger when I'm safe again. But during a bad situation, I'm all strategy.

On that light and cheerful note, I'm onto the work for the day!

My friend Deb loves Lifehouse. Here is their latest video: