[FireForged]

1. projecting strength is a culmination of many things and appearing strong, strong willed or confident is not the same thing as being provocative or aggressive. Sometimes weakness attracts aggression and sometimes being "neutral" can embolden a hostile person who see's it as weakness. Especially if you maintain a neutrality demeanor in the face of an intentional test of your resolve. Sometimes a person making an unpleasant comment to you or encroaching into your space, is a test. That is not to say that a person should throw fuel on the fire but sometimes its all a balancing act. I am usually regarded by people who do not know me as a standoffish personality. I don't have too many people walking up to me or interacting with me in public. Pretty much because I do not suffer strangers or give them an opening, I mind my own business and expect others to do the same.

2. people seem to have some desire to figure out people who they see as a problem. Why care? Its not my problem to fix, I will simply avoid the problem and carry on. Was I right... was I wrong? I am not keeping score. We make thousands of decisions a day and decision made in regards to my personal safety are not all that different than any other decision I make during the course of the day. If you wait for a car to pass before proceeding through the intersection do you sit and wonder about if you could have made it? If you do its probably a millisecond .. and that is probably how your personal safety decision should be categorized. Evaluate and make a decision.. put that decision into motion and carry on.

3. This stuff is not a contest, and it should probably not be something to measure what you are right or wrong about. Did you get home without a problem? if so, great. Nobody is keeping score. Could you have been wrong about the weirdo at the icecream shop?.. sure.. so what, nobody is keeping score. Did you make it home without a problem? That is all that really matters.