"I saw a woman with a sweatshirt that said Guess on it. I said, 'Thyroid problem?'" - Arnold Schwarzenegger

From friend BJ's Facebook page

Spend over two hours in a tin can with about 200 other people and it's not surprising when you and your spouse feel a cold coming on 24 hours later.
This, too, shall pass.

I'm having trouble keeping up with all the abbreviations being used in the news...SOTU, SCOTUS, POTUS, FLOTUS, BOGUS....

I'm having a little trouble getting back into focused work. After some more work on chapter one at the coffee shop I went from task to task here without really finishing any of them. I did get expandable foam sprayed into the gaps around Fred's new windows. After that I dug three of five post holes for the chicken run, putzed at getting tools back where they belong (most still aren't), swept up some of the mess in Fred...
Tomorrow I'll do better.

On the drive home from the Portland airport last night we talked some about how much our personal history affects our present outlook. I think it's almost determinative.
"Personal history" isn't really accurate. It's less about what actually happened than about how we perceived what happened. Less about who we were than what we thought we were.
Someone who, as a child and teen, was comfortable in their social setting and suffered no more than the normal teen angst will most likely feel the same as an adult.
Someone who accurately or inaccurately thought they were pretty hot stuff as a young person will likely go through adulthood with confidence.
If they felt like a misfit and failure (whether they were or not) will always suspect they are still on the outside looking in.

Because it's about perception as much as reality there's only so much a parent can do. That's not to say good parents don't have to be attentive to the verbal and nonverbal messages they give their children. That's a powerful part of a child's self-perception. But they eventually go off to school where peers can be brutal and even benign messages misinterpreted.

In the end we're each responsible for what we do with who we are. For some it's easier than others, but even those who carry the weight of their past are responsible to live sensitive, caring lives.

It made more sense when we talked about it on our drive.