Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Here in furlough, there are a lot of guys who like to yell on the phone. I mean full-on drill-sergeant-style yelling. Many of these guys also attend anger management classes. My take on anger is that it's one of two emotions (sadness being the other) that should be reserved for internal conflict only. I believe that anger and sadness should be bottled up, allowed to ferment, and then served as wine, not as vinegar. As such, I don't believe in mourning, either. I think that the outward expression of your internal sadness should be commemoration; anger should turn to motivation.
Billy Wagner had a broken family growing up, and released his pent up rage by throwing baseballs at the side of a barn. Tori Amos formed
RAINN, one of the two groups to which donate money, saying, "The idea is to rescue myself from the role of a victim. That I have a choice left. Though I can't change what has happened, I can choose how to react. And I don't want to spend the rest of my life being bitter and locked up."