anger

“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”

                                                    Aristotle

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I lost a friend on Facebook

Imagine that !

“There is just too much anger here”

She said

That is not a comment one can just ignore

Such comments are kind of like communion

Which is kind of the like the Gospel

Which is very much like the Truth

Beatrice Bruteau, in her book the Holy Thursday Revolution

Has this to say about communion

“I myself think that using the physical act of eating

to express spiritual intimacy is brilliant. 

If a new idea is offered, first we have to be “open to” it. 

Then we have to “take it in”, “receive” it. 

We taste it, “savor” it. 

We may have to “chew on it” for a while. 

Some things we find “hard to swallow”,

some we just can’t “stomach”.

if we have swallowed the idea we have to give ourselves time to “digest” it. 

Perhaps we actually “assimilate” it,

make it part of ourselves, and begin really to live from it. 

So such a comment must be chewed on

Even if it is hard to swallow

And I will admit

I have thought about this myself

About the anger, perhaps even rage, that arises in me

At some of what I see and hear

Is what is happening acceptable?

I don’t think so

Is it appropriate to be angry when people

Vulnerable, and fragile

Are treated with cruelty?

I don’t think so

Is it important to speak out against that which,

From one’s understanding of God as revealed through Jesus,

is wrong?!

Dead wrong?

I think so

But . . .

That dreaded word

But as we respond to that which cannot simply be tolerated

HOW we respond is important

As I think about this it seems appropriate to set some guidelines

At least for myself

First it is much, much better if one attacks the ideas, the words, the actions,

Rather than the person.

I know, I know

It is hard to separate the person from their thoughts, words and actions

For those things reveal much about who they are.

But still

“It saddens me that the choice to cut 3 million people off of SNAP will leave many of them without food security, and leave children hungry”

Is much better (I think) than “He who shall not be named is a heartless, brutal, greedy asshole!”

We cannot become that which we assail

Or we still lose

We must, as we think about, and talk about, those wrapped up in the cloud

of division and deceit, continue to seek understanding and have compassion and patience

It may be frustrating, that people we care about believe what we understand to be misinformation.  Or that they have grabbed hold of and bought into priorities that are, from the perspective of our values system, questionable.

But much goes into our perceptions.  The lenses we look through, of culture, ideology, gender, life experience, religion, economic status, educational experiences, family imprinting, and the like, radically effect what we notice, and how we interpret what we see.

I seems important to ask questions, before one gets polemic.  Why do you feel that way about that issues?  What has shaped your thinking?  How do you see the issues.  I will admit I don’t always take the time to do this.  Because to me, it is so clear.

We must take the time to seek to understand

If we are going to be angry, perhaps it is best if we are angry for others, not angry on account of how something affects us. 

In the current mess, my anger is not because any of what is happening affects me

(at least in the near future, the environmental stuff will impact us all, eventually)

It is because it impacts those who are most vulnerable.  The poor, the immigrant, the aged, the ill, the person who happens to be a member of a minority population.

Some people are truly victims of a system designed to victimize them

Their voices are muted if not completed silenced by many factors

They have little opportunity to advocate for themselves

Someone has to advocate.

It is much better to be speaking out because one sees others being treated unfairly, than to speak out of one’s own resentment.

So

Try to advocate, in a way that is not abusive or demeaning

It is not a comprehensive list

But for me, this helps me begin to wrap my head around my

Huge concerns over what is happening in this country and in this world

And it helps me to put some boundaries around what is

Admittedly, anger

Will I always be appropriate?  No!

Will I always seek to understand first?  Sadly, No

Will I always express anger over what is happening to the vulnerable, rather than what is happening to me?  I hope so.

For the times my words are just “too much”

Mea culpa

For the times I have not spoken up when I should have,

Mea culpa

For the times I am wrong (always a possibility)

Mea maxima culpa

Lets carry one dear ones

The truth is out there

and the kingdom is near, as near as our next kind act