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I agree about variance in disposition, but I would suggest that everyone cultivate the ability to cope with big losses, because we're all going to lose everything important to us eventually. It's necessary to experience serious adversity and setbacks early and often, so that when the "big one(s)" come, your psyche can deal with it. Feel free to skip this, but I always liked the joke about the pig with a wooden leg. A traveling salesman stops at a farm and sees a pig sitting on the porch with a wooden leg. He asks the farmer about it, and the farmer replies "Well, that's a very special pig. A few years ago, a tornado came through these parts, and he warned us in time to get down to the basement - saved all our lives." "OK," says the salesman, "but why does he have a wooden leg?" The farmer goes on to recount how the pig once saved the farm from a wildfire, and about the time his wife was in a difficult childbirth, and the pig ran across the street to get help from the neighbors. "I understand how you feel about the pig," the salesman says, "but why the wooden leg?" "Well," says the farmer, "a pig that special, you can't bear to eat him all at once." |