Chuck; Thanks for this insightful message. We all have to deal with people who just express anger as their default state, and you struggle with it. Thanks for "being too direct" on this! Lee BTW: I've used your "am I being too direct?" line enough in my life that last week in my men's group at church I heard one of THEM use it -- so there are Chuckisms out there being used by people who don't even know you -- yet... (I'm still working on them!) ;-)