Many of you have noticed that I have been off the boards for a while. Events in my olife continue to shape me, and have taken me away from my daily discourse here to something more introspective. I see that the boards have been in good hands, as the regulars who return to answer and inspire have stayed the course of trying to help others. I find this posting thread curious at this juncture of things, and I know not what started this dialog, but it is certainly a worthwhile one. As many of you know my religious beliefs are something that I share little with others, though I often comment that I am a spiritual person. I once heard a person say that, as the imperfect beings we all are, "God" uses pain, suffering and the like to enlighten us and finally shape us into what we surely must become to be whole and complete. I think the phrase was something like.. His painful blows like a sculptor shaping a form from raw stone, temper us, test us, and force us to evolve emotionally and spiritually. If you are not religious take the word God out of the analogy