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tell us that too much information can cause a weak mind to careen out of control.

If we are lucky, as I was, we have both parents in our homes. Today, this is the greatest negative force - the lack of complete family units. In my opinion, it is the one greatest reason for so much of the world's ills, among many.

Today, we humans needs to find out how to 'be ourselves' again. Ironically it is indeed still difficult to do so. But it is not impossible. It begins with the individual. We must strive to strengthen ourselves. Sure, we go to gyms and watch workouts on DVDs. That's not the strengthening we need. We need strength of character. We need to return to some personal moral values and beliefs - and live by and stand by them.

Even with parental, societal, and media influences trying to depict who we should become, we each do have a brain, a heart, and a soul. We now, more than any era in the past, have the freedom to make our own decisions and choices, and not suffer dire consequences if we make the wrong ones. It is acceptable to make a mistake, as long as we learn from it.

What we have forgotten to realize, though, is that we must be accountable for those mistakes. If we hurt someone, or take quality of life away from someone, we have dues to pay. Sometimes, it may seem those dues are tough pills to swallow. That's unfortunate, because for every action there is a reaction. Hopefully, we learned the difference between right and wrong, and don't have to pay too many of those dues; but we all will indeed pay some along the way. Acknowledging and accepting that fact is a method of finding our just what our mettle is - how much adversity we can handle. Doing what is right is the honorable thing to do. Then we find out what integrity is. Personal honor and integrity are key qualities that lead us to knowing ourselves better.

Pain, heartache, and hard times are all facts of life. Avoiding them numbs us and erodes our strength and personality. Meeting them head on and pro-actively dealing with them builds self-awareness, further prepares us for future crises, and increases our knowledge base on how to live in this crazy world.

What my parents didn't realize was that their attempts to shelter us from the negative forces present in our world didn't protect us at all. Laying down strict religious rules on us turned us away from their beliefs rather than drawing us closer. We learned who we were only through very difficult and painful times - and mainly due to our ignorance of life in general.

Each of my siblings has their own set of closet skeletons. I've got mine too. But we all turned out pretty well. And quite honestly, we each got to our place in life on our own. We've found out who we are just by doing the best we can.

Rather than shelter our kids, we need to arm them with the knowledge that will help them deal with life's issues. Talk with them. Reason with them. Show them the pros and the cons, then it is up to them to make the choice. That is all we can do.

And that is pretty much what life is... a series of choices. How we make them, especially if they go against the 'norms' of our times... is how we find out who we are.

Learn more about this author, Louweeze.
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