Dear Buhogrunon,

Thank you for providing a thoughtful comment that addresses an area I wasn't very clear on. I also appreciate the opportunity to evaluate whether or not I've been overdoing it on taking personal responsibility. Certainly I am not responsible for everything that happens to me, but I am always responsible for how I choose to respond. This was the focus of my warrior or victim post, and I may not have been very clear about the distinction.

You are right to point out that we need to be careful not to take personal responsibility for events that we had no part in causing, or for how those events affect us initially. In the future I will try to strike a better balance.

Viktor Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning, and a survivor of Nazi death camps wrote about the one freedom the Nazis couldn't take from him; his freedom to choose a response that reflects his values, that reflects who he is and what he believes in, no event, person, or system can take this choice away from us and it was Dr. Frankl's belief in this freedom to choose that saved his sanity as he watched friends and family die and was tortured mercilessly. This is the attitude of a warrior, not a victim; even while he was being victimised, he never played the victim's role. It is this attitude concerning our freedom to choose that I tried to highlight in that post.

As to your £glass half empty half full" interpretation, that's a great one! I never heard that one before. Thank you for that. My focus on it was meant to highlight a dialect: the fact that two opposing truths exist concerning the same subject. I too find the traditional interpretation boring and overused.

Thanks for your thoughtful and insightful comments. I often do take on too much responsibility, and that can become overwhelming quickly.

Peace.