AKA_Monet, about that "sting" - I think where I differ is how I react to it, and whether I let that one moment affect me.
Without writing a novel about my life and the experiences I've gone through. I'll just say that about 10 years ago, I decided that I could either go through life angry, or to channel that anger into something productive. I chose the latter.
It's like you said - you refuse to be defined because you are infinite (you contain multitudes!
). That's how I walk through life. If someone wants to throw negativity at me, I can't control their actions, but I
can control how I let it affect me.
When lunacy happens -- and granted, it hasn't happened to me personally in a long, long time -- I just think how sad it must be to be that person who is so bitter, so full of hate, that s/he can't see the beauty of humanity in all its forms. It sounds like tree-hugging hippie crap, and it might seem simplistic, but somehow, someway it just
works for me.
I don't know if this even addressed your question...