• What you become when the going gets tough…and you get going
• What you hear when you really, really wanted something as a child and your parents didn’t see the logic, need or sense of urgency.
• The last word I heard my dementia-stricken Father utter just days before he passed when I asked how he was feeling.
• What my Father was.  He subscribed to the “boy named Sue” child rearing philosophy shaped off of the old Johnny Cash song.
• What I’ve been told I’ve become over time despite a desire to prevent the inevitable jading that comes with time when you realize this world is broken.

Is this characteristic feared or revered?

Growing up, I’d say I feared the tough behaviors and took care to not trigger the potentially negative reactions of a tough parent.

Today, I believe we all revere tough behavior; tough love, tough discipline, tough action when the situation calls for it, with appropriate discretion and when it’s over, it’s over. Respond to antagonistic threats with a quickly escalated but measured (and well within reason) reaction to demonstrate it won’t be tolerated and just as quickly diffuse the situation by leading a diplomatic de escalation.