What I witnessed growing up was that if you didn’t fight, life, and the people in it, would eat you up. You had to be strong or life would drain you of everything and you would be left with nothing. One time, when I was a teenager, I witnessed something that didn’t go along with this. My family and I were in India, visiting with some adults my Mom wanted to spend time with. I was half listening to their conversation, only because I didn’t really understand the language. But at one point, the woman was describing someone and used the description “simple as a cow”. Being an American, that seemed really insulting. They explained to me, that it was complimentary to be described in such a way. It meant the person’s nature was gentle, easy and without deception. And it was openly acknowledged as a good thing. This really blew my mind.