...I'm thinking of that Eagle's lyric from "Already Gone,": "...but oftentimes it happens/that we live our lives in chains/and we never even know we have the key..."I've been watching and listening to my loved ones around me...and, it makes me so sad...when you see the ones you love so entrenched inside of their personal, long-time emotional distresses, is it wise to just yank them out of it, or will they only take the gesture as one of rejecting who they "are?"  My gut tells me it's the latter...these are not lazy, dumb people...if they felt they had the strength to overcome these emotional plateaus, they'd have done it, already...long, long before I was ever even a wink in anyone's eye...But, why are they still staying "there," w/o seeking ANY help?I watched my technical mentor, at work, get let go this week, w/o an explanation from anyone.  I truly liked the guy...he was kind, patient, had the manners of a country gentleman...who cares if he dressed like a logger and loved his Harley?  Wasn't the important thing that he was a human being? He wasn't afraid to admit that he didn't know something, but would always help to try and find something out, especially if you were in a crunch for something...so, he just gets let go...why?  Why do they always axe the good people?  'Cause they aren't miracle workers?  Well, where the hell does that leave me, then?I knew this guy...he liked everyone there, loved his family, spent a bundle just to send his kids to the best parochial school in town...who is going to help him, now?  Where had his four years of loyalty gotten him?That day got weirder from there...My sub-boss was trying to help me finish these drawings and suddenly he just freezes and says, "Oh, crap!" looking out into the parking lot, outside.  Far as I know, I've been the only one at this new place to swear, period...and that's been mentally, or way, way under my breath...Turns out it was my boss's wife/co-owner of the place who had showed up, suddenly, w/three out of four kids (the oldest had soccer practice)...seems she had come in to tour the new place (which still looked like bomb hit it, in the back...I had been trying to just find the office supplies for four days...).  Anyway, the very attitude that my sub-boss and the boss's wife had between themselves barely qualified as socially neutral, they were so sarcastic towards each other...I turned on my "high beam" grin, played it up for all it was worth and kept my head low...eventually, she left and I saw so much resentment in my sub-boss's face...it was nearly scary.  You could tell that that "problem" had so much history, there...Then, I watched my Dad as we cleaned the last of G.M.'s place out...he could barely make himself function, at all, once we were there, he was so crushed that there was so much unresolved water under that bridge.  Once we finished and were home, my Mom cynically noted that someone would have to chop off my Dad's hands, just to get him to let go of any "reins," be they reins of power, or guilt...Mom also noted with deep feeling that it was the story of her life to "just get stuck w/men" who thought more about their personal reactions to a bad situation than as to how that bad situation was affecting the people around them...you could just see the long tunnel of hurt in her eyes, they went so dark...I just had to get out into the yard w/the cat, tonight, and blast something between my ears that would be cathartic and freeing...I passed eighty minutes listening to nothing but "In the Name of Love," over and over...I know that would drive most folks over the brink, but  I can honestly say that it helped me...But, what about the rest of them?  What about all of the rest of them?