Atticus, this group sounds life-draining. That’s not to say it isn’t a good thing for you to be there, though. Is it SS that keeps you there? You are such a giving person, in so many arenas, it makes me hope that you have someplace in your weeks where you are cared for and nourished and given back life. Maybe I’m hoping this for us all…

The boy in Duma is mild mannered, but he is of strong character. In one scene he takes on a drifter who is trying to steel his motorcycle, and his cleverness wins the man’s trust.

Ofelia in Pan’s Labyrinth has a strong life force. She also is mild mannered, but when challenged she shows strength and clarity and confidence.

And going waaay back, I think of Elliot in E.T., who is a small boy, yet he draws in his older brother to follow him. He takes charge. He becomes the authority in their relationship. He leads them.

That’s interesting that you define me as someone with a strong life force. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to recognize some of that in myself. As a younger, less confident person, I saw it in other people and never in myself. It wasn’t until a few key people began to point it out in me that I began to believe it. I don’t know what it means, but I will try to accept your compliment with humility and strive to do justice to my calling.

I’m still trying to understand definitions here, though, because I would consider, at least what I know of your on-line self, to be powerful. I think your life force is strong. So maybe there are different kinds of forces to be talked about here, one being the kind that gets people flocking to you, and another being the reality of a strong self that engages the world with an internalized sense of legitimacy.

But I stopped being envious of her a long time ago, because it proved to be too much for her. She lived a fairly tortured life for many years and let too many of the people who gathered around her influence her and draw her in. Now, many years later, she’s still recovering.