4 April 2008 (28 Adar II 5768)

Like many other people I have both negative and hopefully also some positive character traits. I have noticed that although the potential proportion of my negative and positive character traits does not seem to have changed significantly in the past several years, some people increase the actual proportion of the manifestations of the former, while others increase that of the latter. Since I remain more or less the same person, I wonder what causes positive and negative "chemical" reactions in interpersonal relationships. There are the following types of combinations and resulting reactions:

  1. My positive character trait combines with someone else's positive character trait, resulting in:
    1. the reinforcement of my positive trait
    2. its suppression
  2. My positive character trait combines with someone else's negative character trait, resulting in:
    1. the reinforcement of my positive trait
    2. its suppression
  3. My negative character trait combines with someone else's positive character trait, resulting in:
    1. the reinforcement of my negative trait
    2. its suppression
  4. My negative character trait combines with someone else's negative character trait, resulting in:
    1. the reinforcement of my negative trait
    2. its suppression

I am more interested in suppressing my negative traits than in reinforcing my positive traits, as one manifestation of one negative trait is often liable to spoil the whole interpersonal relationship even when there are many manifestations of multiple positive traits. This is like having a drop of deadly poison in a quality wine; the combination as a whole can be fatal. I am more or less aware of my own negative character traits, but I have not detected exactly what negative traits of others worsen mine (3.1 above); more problematic are those cases in which my negative traits are reinforced by someone else's positive traits (4.1 above).

11 April 2008 (6 Nisan 5768)

[no update due to a trip]

18 April 2008 (13 Nisan 5768)

[no update due to a trip]

25 April 2008 (20 Nisan 5768)

[no update due to a trip]