Anger Revisited (Once More)
I've written about anger several times in the past. (Please follow these links: Anger; Anger(2); Anger Revisited.) I haven't lost my feeling that anger is harmful and counter-productive, both to the angry and to their victims. But I occasionally read something about anger that I like to talk about, even if only to emphasize my disagreement.
One recent article argues that anger is necessary to accomplish our goals, to right wrongs, to demonstrate the strength of our convictions. I respond that the writer is confusing anger with passion, rage with strength of purpose. Anger hurts us by dulling our senses, confusing our thinking and producing adverse physical reactions. It hurts others by evoking anger in them and making them respond in a way that can embarrass them. While we must be strong in maintaining our ideals, our standards, while we must be passionate in opposing evil, we don't need anger to move forward. Believe me when I say that the many years I was angry were largely wasted, that the defeat of anger dramatically improved my life.
Another perspective I recently read argues that anger is natural and must be
expressed. It states that anger is our friend, signaling that something is
wrong, and that we must communicate it. Anger may be natural but it is not
necessary. We can avoid anger by recognizing its evils and confronting them. We
can recognize when something is wrong in our lives without anger and we can work
to correct it without anger.
Defeat anger by thinking calmly, seek the calm by insisting upon it. After all,
anger is a sin, one of the seven deadly sins. I still promise to write about the
sin at a later time.
7-24-06
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