Note: Blogging goes through seasons for me. The season has changed. The new season is one of sharing morsels from stuff I've read over the last decade. This is a helpful way for me to review. If you find it useful or enjoyable, that's an exciting bonus. Someday a season of personal sharing will re-emerge. Just not right now. Instead:


Thought #1: "An entire book could be filled with examples of how people pathologically escape from their ambivalence by running with only one side of it. Suffice it to say that the healthiest response is usaully to live with it -- to live with the existential suffering of uncertainty & conflictual feelings . . . . the healthiest resolution of deep ambivalence requires facing it over an extended period of time & with a great deal of psychospiritual work, including often the work of depression."


Thought #2: Dysfunction is in all families, but some produce more pain than the child can bear. Therefore, pain-avoidance strategies lead to either neuroses (it's all my fault) or character disorder (nothing is my fault). Neuroses & character disorder are always a substitute for legitimate suffering.

Greatest mystery: some people have strong will to grow; others don't.


(both thoughts taken from Denial of the Soul by M. Scott Peck)