The last week has been tinged with the sorrow, outrage, and hatred that masks itself as self-righteous indignation over the horrific attacks in Paris. It has come up with a few of my clients. It alternates between a slow-burning seething pain and a flaring, almost overwhelming rage. Why the violence? Why do so many people feel justified in taking the lives of innocents in the name of their ideology, as a response to their wounding? Why do we stand by while this happens?

Sometimes the road ahead of us gets dark. The dreams we had of what life would be when we were young start to dim, and we come face to face with the reality that we are human beings. This can come as a shock. For most people it does. I remember being younger and thinking that the sky is the limit in the possibilities for my life. I thought that I could and would accomplish anything. After a period of descent, where I collapsed into a deep depression and brought the world