Hello -- How sad that you had to experience such a breach of trust. Don't worry on my account -- all this debate is sort of character-building. I have a strong tendency to quail when criticized, and to generalize into thinking that all the world feels the same as the criticizer, that they are right and I am bad, and so on and so FORTH! These FML debates are showing me that it can be just the opposite, really. Also, I see that that not getting overwhelmed lets me absorb the opinions behind the criticisms, which can be helpful towards clarifying things. It also lets me realize a little of the deep personal lives of some of the writers and, since we all share a lot of psychology, it's been enlightening. For example, I've been thinking about how important it is to us to maintain our deepest conceptions of reality and convince others of them. Lastly (so far!), all of this has shaken up a deep inability to debate and take action. If you are always feeling criticized, how can you debate freely? How can you make decisions? How can you take action? You can't get much done if you're cowering in a mental bomb shelter. So I'm grateful for this whole experience -- it's lightened that load. [Posted in FML 7755]