Re: Do we define our circumstances, or do circumstances define us?
You're right, it's a subtle distinction, but certainly a valid one. But still, be careful, I do believe I detect a bit of hubris there. That's not a scolding, its a report from the front lines.
Simple answers too often have an annoying way of turning out too simple to be right, and too easy to be true, whether we happen to like them or not.
Case in point, one bitter lesson I've learned is that a lot of things I used to be convinced of I'm not too sure about anymore, or as Bob Dylan put it, "Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
Or as Bob Seger, our other great poet of the Midwest phrased it, even more succintly, "I wish I didn't know then what I didn't know now."