Whatever doesn’t kill can make one strong,
I’ve heard, observed examples, lived a few,
and tend to think the saying isn’t wrong
in cases where attack is less than nu-
clear, when there’s a chance health may ensue.
In fact, while threat will ever make us yearn
for safety, it’s from lasting that we learn.

The siege may be on body, like disease
or accident-caused disability,
financial hardship, spirit-sapping pleas,
exertions summoned for extremity,
or (lesser sung), the hard hostility
may be unleashed at ego’s palisade,
and threaten how the character is made.

Mistakes were in my course. My mother tried
corralling and subduing inner me.
A victim of attempted ego-cide,
deposited away for surgery,
I had to make a choice too young, to be
my own adult or stay a child still.
At 5 I started focusing my will.

(Rhyme Royal)