I saw something the other day that really gave me pause, and it’s not something we normally talk about, but it’s anger. Unbridled anger. Was in a store, and I don’t know really what was occurring, but somehow there was a clerk and there was a client. And the client was explaining something, and he wasn’t being understood. And slowly, he got angrier and angrier.
And I’m kind of a bystander here to this kind of tragedy, this drama unfolding. And finally, he’s at a point that he’s virtually screeching. At the clerk. Uncontrolled anger. And I thought to myself, wow.
Where does this anger lead? Well, we all know where it leads. It eventually leads to, of course, war, violence, hurting one another physically or emotionally or psychologically. Can’t be good. Anger is a cancer that when it sets into the mind, into the body, it slowly slowly poisons you.
And I think all of us would be well served because I think we all have anger inside of ourselves as well, but we would be well served to get rid of this cancer as quickly as possible because Cancer can exist, and then there is no love. And we need love, don’t we, to go forward in life to really understand who we are. No. I think fundamentally, there are 2 types of anger. The one we’ve just spoken about, but, ultimately, I’m an optimist.
I think the individual through prayer, through study, through interaction with other people can slowly gain control of the anger. At least identify the triggers that we all have, we all possess. Right? And you can alleviate that anger. And I find in myself, for example, I used to be able to get very angry very easily.
I had some power. I had some money. Oh, I’m an important person. Don’t insult me. But over time, I’ve come to realize that that kind of anger doesn’t work, and, in fact, it makes me feel rather sick.
But the other type of anger I was alluding to, which is deep seated anger, perhaps it’s a form of, gosh, racism or bigotry or just dislike of other cultures or human beings. This type of anger, the bias is harder to get rid of, but we must if we’re going to interact with people. If we are really going to have peace on earth as the Bible tells us, for example, then we’re going to have to learn to live with one another even if I don’t like you. Right? Even if I find your habits tedious and rather boring and maybe even awful, I still have to come to learn to respect you because there is an ultimate belief that human beings are good.
And human beings, with some education, can learn to contribute to one another, can learn to help one another, and build a better world. And I think if you look at populations, perhaps that were war like, let’s take the Spartans. I think it’s an interesting example. The Spartans as a society were geared towards war. Men were educated from the time they were very young to be soldiers, and we have great tales.
Yes. We have Leonidas at Thermopylae who stopped the Persians for a period of time in entering, perhaps, Greece. But by the same token, Sparta today is gone. It no longer exists as a society, and Athens, the liberal society, has flourished. So we today often say that Western civilization is based on really 2 cities, Jerusalem, which is, of course, spirituality, and Athens, which is one of, perhaps, culture, reflection, philosophy, things along this nature.
So the next time you feel yourself overcome with anger, you’ve been triggered into anger, Reflect. Find another way. Find a way of love and peace because this is the ultimate answer, I think, for humanity. We’ve got to learn to understand and to love one another. And you know what they say.
You know what they say. Critical thinking is necessary if we’re going to finally achieve a peaceful world for one another. And critical thinking is, of course, great. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.