Anger–What’s It Good For?
There was a Seinfeld episode where the running joke was about a book supposedly entitled: War–What Is It Good For? I was reminded of it tonight in a discussion about anger with a group of friends. A continuing theme in our talk was about perspective and one participant told a story about living in Miami Beach some years ago, making a living as an artist. He wasn’t doing the fancy gallery stuff. He was selling his paintings on the street. One particularly blowy day, when he really needed money to pay the rent, he was getting angrier and angrier at the wind that was gusty and was blowing his paintings around causing him to scramble to keep from losing them. He described how he would just seem to get it under control and then another gust would come and he would have to start all over again. Finally, he called a friend that suggested he call it quits and he did. Arriving home he decided, since he couldn’t really sell any of his work that day that he might as well go to the beach. He did and when he got there, he found a nice secluded spot, spread his towel out and sat down. Just as he did so, a breeze came up and he thought to himself, “Wow what a lovely breeze?” Then, in a flash he realized it was the same breeze…the one that had been tormenting him less than an hour before.
For people like myself, with ADD, anger can have a purpose. It can wake up the brain. So does worry and my brain can be like a guided missile, looking for something to either get mad about or to worry over. I don’t like it but I know it works that way. Sometimes when I stay up late to watch television, I can feel myself getting angry at some item in a documentary or a newscast and I realize that it is one o’clock in the morning. I then have a choice. I can continue with the anger and wake myself up in which case I’m done for going to sleep for at least two hours. Or I can go to bed. These days, usually, bed is my choice.