"To be angry is to revenge the fault of others upon ourselves."--Alexander Pope
We all get angry at times. It's a natural emotion, and sometimes anger can even be productive if it motivates us to take constructive actions. But, most of the time when we get angry, we just inflict further pain upon ourselves. If we feel someone has done us wrong, getting angry about it just adds to the hurt inflicted upon us. Instead of getting even with the person who has hurt us, we usually make ourselves feel worse. There is no way we can control the behavior of others, but we can control the way we react to that behavior.
Sometimes we just become angry at life, itself, without having any particular person upon whom to focus our anger. Our accumulation of frustrations just seems to get the better of us, and we just become angry at the whole world. That is the worst kind of anger as far as its impact upon us. In the words of Frank Moore Colby, "I know of no more disagreeable situation than to be left feeling generally angry without anybody in particular to be angry at."
Although anger is a natural emotion, it is one of the negative emotions as compared to positive emotions such as love. These negative emotions, which also include hate, fear, envy, and anxiety can have very detrimental physiological effects on the body. They are in a sense toxic to our systems.
It is not easy to avoid anger when others annoy us, but it is in our best interest to do so. Perhaps we should try to give those who annoy us the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they are just having a bad day and did not really intend to antagonize us. Perhaps they are suffering from so many problems of their own, of which we are not aware, that they are unable to properly control their behavior at the moment. Whether this is the case, or whether they are just plain inconsiderate of others, really should not make a difference in the way we react to them. Just because they can't control their behavior is not sufficient justification for us to abandon our efforts to control our own behavior.
Except in those occasional cases where getting angry does motivate us to take constructive actions, what is the value of anger to us or to anyone else? Can we justify our anger just because others are angry? More importantly, does getting angry make us better or more productive individuals? If not, wherein lies its value?
Copyright 2014 Allen W. Smith
TB-89—Posted 06/21/2014
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