Respond With Purpose

ROD TRIED TO RUN AWAY for three years, but he was always caught and sent back home where he was brutally and regularly beaten by his drunken stepfather. The years of beatings had broken both of Rod's arms, three of his ribs, and bruised him everywhere in between.

But Rod was learning. At eleven years old, he tried running away from home again, this time at night. He hitched rides and kept going, and he was never caught again. He made his own way from then on.

The boy grew up to be a world-renowned poet and composer named Rod McKuen, who also worked so hard to prevent child abuse he became the honorary chairman of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse.

Rod McKuen responded to his trauma with purposeful, intelligent action, doing what he could to prevent the trauma in others.

That's a first-rate response to trauma, tragedy, fear, threat, or defeat: Respond with purpose. Work to eliminate the source of the trauma. Not only is it a healthy way for you to personally deal with trauma and tragedy, but it's better for the world too.

Michael W. Fox, a veterinarian and author of Superdog: Raising the Perfect Canine Companion, was a lover of animals, as most kids are. One day he was walking home from school when he looked through a fence and saw a ghastly sight. It was the backyard of a veterinary clinic, and there was a large trash bin overflowing with dead dogs and cats.

"I never knew the reason for this mass extermination," Fox said, "but I was, from that time on, committed to doing all I could to help animals, deciding at age nine that I had to be a veterinarian." Fox responded with purpose. He became a veterinarian and has worked to reduce the suffering of animals. He has educated people and instigated new legislation that reflects more respect for all animals.

Do you feel overwhelmed by Islam's relentless encroachment? What should you do? Try to get over it? Forget about it? Try to go on with your life? If you've tried this and it doesn't work very well, consider it your conscience demanding you do something about it. Consider that your own integrity doesn't accept the idea that you are completely helpless to influence things. And then respond with purpose.

If you really think you are helpless to influence world affairs, go here. If you don't know what to do or how to respond with purpose, use a problem solving method to think it through.

In the book, In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors, is another example. The ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, sending 900 American soldiers into the ocean with not much more than life jackets. Within four days, 579 men were dead. Most had been eaten by sharks. It was an experience the survivors would never get out of their minds.

At least one survivor responded with purpose.

Bob Gause was a commercial fisherman before the ordeal, and he returned to it afterward. But he became a shark hunter too. When a shark was terrorizing a beach in Florida, Bob Gause was the man to call. He became an expert on sharks and knew how to hunt them down and kill them. Some say he was the inspiration for the Captain Quint character in the movie, Jaws.

If you feel anxious about the continued activities of Jihadis, the healthiest, most productive response is to take purposeful, intelligent action. Islamic supremacists have dedicated themselves to destroying us. We've seen what they are capable of, and they won't stop on their own. What are you going to do about it? For your own mental health and for safety of your country, I hope you respond with purpose.

Ten examples of how to respond with purpose.

Learn how to undemoralize your own mind and the minds of your family and friends.

Read an example of a father responding to his son's diagnosis with purpose: CBS News