Resentment A slave born of fear:

Ask Rufus Jackassface with the Buck Teeth: Stoicism in Real Life.

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I’m afraid of public speaking, my boss, my bills, responsibility, success, the future, and my bully neighbor Rufus Jackassface with the buck teeth, who threatened to cut off my fingers with a dull butter knife, for playing Linus and Lucy on the piano at 8 P.M. a couple of years ago.

Not to mention, I’m afraid of happiness. Well, not anymore.

This was me. So, turn that frown upside down, you damned coward, and rewrite your frickity-fracken script. Most people wander through life afraid of their own shadows. Why? Much of it comes down to internal dialogue, you know, negative self-speak.

And where does much of this nonsense originate? Corrupted computers, those flawed personal downloads we receive in early childhood.

When we’re young, crawling around on our hands and knees with blank hard drives screwed to the inside of our skulls, every bit of information is new to us. What we hear and absorb from our parents becomes the hardwired code in our gray matter-motherboards. Is that information nurturing and useful? Or, is it harmful and replete with fear and insecurity, the kind that transforms a growing child into a frightened coward afraid to advocate for himself — afraid of Rufus…