Because I am receiving PMs asking if this list is about the sender, or someone the sender knows -- let me do the best I can to make this clear:

Writers take bits and pieces of reality and shape it into word products. Poems. Stories. Novels. Humor. Journalism. Just as songwriters and artists do, in other media. The list uses exaggeration to parody self-help advice lists.

This list pertains to me as much as it may to anyone else. I have been a victim to the extent that I've had two people leave my life telling me that they couldn't and wouldn't take it anymore. I suspect others ditched me for the same reason, but without telling me why.

I have been accused of refusing to take responsibility for my life and blaming others for situations I create for myself.

I absorb myself in "helping" others when I should keep my focus on myself. I allow myself to get sucked into other people's games and cons, so that I don't have to look at my own!

I have blind spots that I am reluctant to look at. I go to counseling and do the best I can with that -- but a blind spot is exactly that. It is a place within oneself that one resists admitting is there at all costs -- even when one is hurting oneself by denying the wound exists.

I have spent my lifetime apologizing when I didn't think I needed to in order to "smooth things over" and make life easier and more pleasant for others. For just this one time in my life, I am not going to assume the burden of anyone else's interpretations, assumptions, and inferences about what the list "means." If you think it is mean or evil or in bad taste, those judgments belong to you. The list is your mirror.

I am not going to be responsible for your thoughts and emotions, just this once. I am not going to apologize for doing what a writer does -- write.