If you put a lid on a pot of boiling water, the water rises to the top, spills all over and makes a mess. Is that what happens with anger? Water kettles have valves for steam to be released, slowly, in a controlled fashion. Is that what it means when they say, I must vent or I will blow my top?
Anger is an emotion. Like smoking, it may be dangerous to your health. Unexpressed anger festers and can eventually kill you. Some think it is a normal human response that simply needs to be managed. The Roman lyric poet Horace called it “a brief lunacy, a momentary madness.”
It sucks and we hate it. Our character flaws and personal aberrations make us restless, despicable at worst. Being bigoted, intolerant, hateful, hot-tempered, thick in the hide and foul-mouthed is an abnormal state.
One afternoon, I was having quiet time at a coffee shop close to work, and could not help but overhear the conversation taking place between two women beside me.
Some people are in jail and most of us are not, that is obvious; but beneath the surface are others who are imprisoned by fear, sickness, resentment and ill will.
It used to irritate me no end whenever I got a call from an unlisted number. I considered it quite nervy. I did not recognize the number, but I knew somehow who was calling: not anyone I’d wish to talk to, ever. They’d be offering me another credit card or a loan, which, at my age, I need like a hole in the head.