hi nancy waaaay back on 97/11/08 -0500, nancy, or sumwun posing as same, wrote: >I am a Swedish Ameerican and while growing up that >culture was instilled in me. Although I have Shy Dragers >and not PD, I know for a fact that my "feistiness" and >kindness towards others... Attitude plays a signifant role.. absolutely! i had a bit of a quibble with the article since it mentioned 'willpower' and 'confidence' my experience with clinical depression [cd] has taught me that 'willpower' has no bearing on getting out of a clinical depression cd can be an insidious creeping chemical fog that smothers all [serotonin based?] willpower and self-confidence since cd is commonly and tragically undiagnosed in elders it seemed to me that, in a subtle way, the article was furthering the false notion that 'pulling yourself up by the bootstraps' is all you need to be 'successful' in the context of the article which compared 'successful' independent-living feisty elders with 'declining' nursing-home-dependent elders but that's only my opinion i could be wrong your cybber-sibbling in quibbling janet janet [log in to unmask]