I have come to believe that happiness, satisfaction, and success can be attained through the concepts of forgiveness and gratitude. We have all been wronged and we have all wronged others. We could all be bitter… every one of us. However as we charge toward the new year and enjoy the Christmas holiday, I am reminding myself that those who have done things to me, didn’t do them because they wanted to be evil. They did them because from their perspective they were in the right. Even if their actions are objectively indefensible, nobody hurts someone else because they desire destruction… they do it because they are acting in their own self interest. And in the rare exceptions that prove that rule, I’ll just give the benefit of the doubt.