A couple of weeks ago I watched a man in a drugstore launch
into a tirade after discovering he had been sold the wrong brand of cigarettes
and the manager wouldn’t let him exchange them for his preferred brand. The
manager said it was because of some law, but the smoker wasn’t having any of
it.
Frankly, I think any brand
of cigarettes is the wrong brand, but that’s a different subject.
Anyway, I feared the customer would go “postal.” (Can you go
postal in a drugstore?) He was mad, and his voice’s decibel level indicated he needed
everyone within a two-mile radius to know his displeasure.
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| Can you guess that Florida Gators' head coach Will Muschamp isn't happy? (BleacherReport photo) |
Then Saturday, watching the Georgia-Florida football game, I
saw the Gators’ head coach Will Muschamp almost pop a carotid artery as he
berated one of his players for a mistake. I couldn’t lip-read what he was
saying (and probably didn’t want to know), but the grimaces Muschamp’s face
made must have taken hours in front of a mirror to perfect.
I don’t remember what provoked the coach’s anger, but at the
time I wondered, “Mothers, is that the face of a man into whose tender, loving
care you’ll entrust your sons while still in their formative years?”
These days everyone seems angry about something. “Tolerance”
people pour waves of angry intolerance toward people they consider intolerant.
TV and radio talk show commentators voice anger toward anyone not sharing their
views. Parents get mad at their kids, and kids are angry at their parents.
Terrorists, of course, express hatred toward those that
don’t share their ideologies. But even in private homes, anger can create
terror between husband and wife.
Workplaces are hardly immune from angry displays. Furious
bosses spew venom on employees that displease them, and frustrated employees
increasingly vocalize and demonstrate their anger for a variety of reasons.
Why do we all seem so quick to display angry feelings? Does
it make us feel good?
I’ve been prone to anger myself, but time has taught me the wisdom
of choosing to not let off steam. Like a rapidly forming tornado, outbursts of
anger appear and subside quickly, but leave fearsome paths of damage in their
wake.
Maybe that’s why the Bible, particularly the book of
Proverbs, has much to say about anger and its dangers:
“A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an
insult” (Proverbs 12:16).
“As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for
kindling strife” (Proverbs 26:21).
“A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under
control” (Proverbs 29:11).
In the classic film “Network,” actor Peter Finch’s newsroom
character urges viewers to go to their windows, open them and shout, “I’m as
mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Well, that might make us
feel better, venting pent-up emotions, but what does it solve?
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