Well, this must be what it would be like to live on Venus. Yellow clouds of poisonous air obscuring the view from my windows, and being unable to step outside my habitat without a spacesuit.
Yesterday evening, I was very angry...very, very angry. Angry about the state of things in my country, in my world. Angry about how they got this way, angry about the ignorant, selfish people that have caused so much of this, angry even at my own culpability for not doing more, for not actively working against the ignorance and selfishness.
I proceeded to stay up late and drink heavily and did NOT write the rant I meticulously plotted in my head, most all of which was aimed and belittling and insulting people. Not very constructive that.
Anger isn't just a coping mechanism (we tend to get angry to feel like we are in control, to stave off our fear of helplessness)...it is a tool, given to us by our Creator. Used properly, it helps us to transform ourselves, bringing focus to our will, spurring us to do the hard work that ends up being needed when we have procrastinated in doing what should have been done all along.
And it's only by changing ourselves for the better that we can change our world for the better.
Not that most of us are willing to do that. Heck, many of us lack the capability for it (as with all skills, it's something that requires practice, and atrophies from disuse). But as I look outside my window this morning, I force myself to repeat a mantra in my mind:
Things can always get worse. Things can always get worse. Things can always get worse.
There is nothing more true or more sure in this world. Suffering will continue to increase the longer we allow suffering to continue. Because of ignorance. Because of selfishness. Because of our lack of love.
Sorry if that's a downer.
By the way: Happy birthday, AB. Hope you're doing well, wherever you are, my brother.
I'm glad you posted this. I, too, have been having a hard time managing the constant anger I am dealing with. My anger has many targets, but it's mostly aimed at people who instead of doing the hard work of changing the world for the better are involved in its continued demise.
ReplyDeleteLast night during shabbat we talked about the high holiday season and the arrival of Rosh Hahanah and Yom Kippur, which are wonderful opportunities to reflect, repent, and to redirect our energy toward obtaining a more effective and satisfying life. It's hard work as you well know.
Good luck up there in the growing conflagration. October is always a tough month for fires in So. Cal. as the winds start howling offshore and the temps are still in the 80s' to 90s.
All this stuff going down...it's got to mean something. It's got to be pointing us toward a different future. A better one, I hope.
Peace.
If more of us would just be kind to one another and love one another the world would be such a better place. I too have been struggling with anger, frustration and more. Trying to control how I respond/react to all the madness, rather than letting it control me.
ReplyDeleteI know its a hard thing, but there is no point in getting angry about making all the wrong choices. The only crime is ignorance of truth, and its something everyone is equally guilty of.
ReplyDeleteYou go looking for a Creator. The truth is there is no god. Centuries of indoctrination of children to the idea has set you up for the harsh lesson of failure. At superposition all life is the same life so life created the universe. So even evolution is provably false. The Idea we are a single organism at superposition seems to be inherently alien to the human belief system. So its going to be a throatpunch to Americans.
Right now the USA has enough forest needed for wood pulp for toilet paper to sustainably supply 12 percent of its population or give everyone toilet paper for less than ten more years. So unless you all grow a forest and confine your entire population to an area of America the size of Long Island you are going to be undertaking a Military campaign in Brazil to seize the forest timber for TP.
"All this stuff going down...it's got to mean something."
It of course all does mean something. It means you are fatally Wrong. Forests make rain, not God. So chopping down forests is getting you the well deserved forest fire conditions.
I watched NASAs observation of CO2 sources. The majority comes not from north America or industry, but from Africa where the peasant farmers are burning forest and grass to clear land for farming. So Africa is in its' backwards farming, just as crap as America and everyone else.
An asteroid hit in 2029 is going to be a mercy killing at this point.
You want to make some small difference? Join with others, buy dustbowl farmland, put in bores, and irrigate a forest in north-south rows while grazing Marino sheep between the rows to keep the grass short so it doesnt burn. It means you can sell wool to subsidise what you are doing. Farming better will make a difference. The trees will shade the grown retaining soil moisture longer, allowing better grazing conditions. Even contacting a farmer having it tough and helping fund a change in his farming could promote change for the better.
Negative emotions are tough. We know they are bad but cant avoid them.
ReplyDeleteIm not sure wearing seahawks gear off season makes you a tool. Are you wearing face paint and logoed zumba pants? I rock a t shirt every now and then off season. My baby wears a onsise used shawn alexander jersey alot.
Either way Go Hawks !
Anger is not a tool. It is an emotion. That emotion can either be given to God through prayer (which is why so many Psalms evoke emotions, like anger at God), or they can fester within us and turn into wrath, which takes us away from God and into sin.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most difficult lessons of life is that we are not in control. The purpose of the Sabbath was to help us realize while we weren't doing an work on Saturday, the world went along its merry way without us.
It is okay to be angry, but give that to God and concentrate on the things we can control...how we treat ourselves and other people. I learned the hard way that loving and holding on to joy is a lot easier.
@ Father Dave:
DeleteI understand your point, but I probably wasn't clear enough about mine. Our feelings...that is, our ability to feel...is a part of our species. And as such, it is my belief that we have these feelings for a reason...my belief is that God doesn't make mistakes. There is a use for anger, I believe, but most of don't put it to constructive use...many haven't a clue as to how. They'd just rather rage.
Things can always get better, too.
ReplyDeleteSure...we can always hope. Usually won't happen without some participation though.
DeleteParticipants can be found. The world has never been more connected. Maybe that's the problem... connectivity growing pains.
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