Character is best forged by Mental Pain

Let me first thank-you for your kind words, as far as making headway my opinion would be we are going where no one has gone before, seriously what little headway we have made it is at least positive, and there seems to be less emphasizing on just winning. To me this makes for a much more productive debate. Your belief on Character is Best forged by Mental Pain is without doubt "a way" to build character, however adversity does not sit back and say oh boy here's someone nice he is ill prepared let me sock it to em, you know as well as I adversity comes like a thief in the night, it chooses us with no warning or how it will effect one. So my point is "no one" can prepare for some of life's most devastating events, but how one handles its aftermath is usually determined on the strength or faith some individuals have. My opinion is based on real people who have experienced mind altering experiences, the ones who seemed to fare the best were mostly men of the cloth, whether it be there "niceness" there "will" to survive or a strength from an entity separate from the norm. Regardless of the hows we all enter into adversity unprepared, like how you dealt with your Moms death, I also came out of boot camp on an emergency leave only to find my Mother on her death bed, that very day I carried her 80 lb. frame into the hospital, her condition was grave, as she had heart failure. She died within hours after her arrival, as you watched your Mom fade away I'm sure you felt things we all experience when the ones we love depart. After my Mothers passing her doctor explained her heart had stopped twice, they broke all her ribs reviving her the first time. He explained further as she became conscious she told him my baby is dead I don't want to live anymore..you see three weeks prior I had another emergency leave, my youngest brother was killed by a drunk driver...the doctor said she lost the "will" to live. Even as a fresh brazen Marine I was reduced to a withering mass of jello, there was no "mental pain" in the physical sense. There was a high anxiety as to the whys..then those damm statistics came into play...the odds are1 out of four in a family will die before their time. This of course didn't quell the anxiety's. My Mother still had my Dad my brother and two sisters..so the whys continued, again no mental pain in the physical sense. For me this type adversity had more of a slow rationalizing effect...to fast forward into the days my rifle was aimed at another human being is where the real "mental pain" accrued. This pain is like no other..there is no rational explanations..dealing with these issues is a daily battle..my brothers and sisters that gave the "ultimate" they are what sustains me. Kind of ironic but in a sense something Einstein said is fitting: A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Semper-Fi.....:o)