Life is not controllable. I guess that’s what makes it ”beautiful” (although this might be making a comfortable virtue out of an uncomfortable necessity). Life’s unpredictability and its intricate web of inter- and intra-relationships add to one’s already malleable will and quite often conflicting desires. Nothing is fixed. Sometimes it’s a nice escapism to believe that’s the case – that we exist with existential building blocks around us that we can structure entirely at will. But we all know that’s not the case to any greater extent. What can be done, however, is to minimize negative influx from others. Dealing with oneself and one’s own problems should be quite enough. To expose oneself to other people’s neuroses or ill will definitely decimates one’s freedom of choice and quality of life. Other people simply shouldn’t be allowed to in any way deflate our hopes or our work. Life may not be fully controllable, but we can at least arrange our individual trajectory so that it’s...