Dear Friends,
Way back, about 24 years ago or so, I was in the first grade. I enjoyed kindergarten, but once they put away the finger paints the problems began. One day in class, my friend got sick and threw up. He was very ill, yet our teacher began yelling at him and forced him to clean it up. I told her that I didn't think it was nice to yell at him for being sick which, in turn, caused more yelling. I then retorted, "I know you think you're yelling at me, but really I think you're yelling at yourself." I'm sure you can guess how the rest of my short-lived scholastic career turned out.
Twenty-four years later, I feel the same way about people who have not learned to curb their anger. Recently, I was in a meeting and watched a person's anger breed itself from the moment he walked in the door right up until the meeting ended. I think the worst thing about anger is that it tends to spread; people can absorb anger from their surroundings which, in effect, can change the way people act and speak. I watched it happen at the meeting. The man got angry at me, I got angry at him, and ultimately everyone ended up angry. Nothing was accomplished.
In the end, the moral of the story is to try and catch yourself when you feel yourself becoming angry - you will find that nine out of 10 times the anger is rooted in yourself. You, and only you, have the ability to cure yourself of this anger before you affect the people around you. Who knows - being conscious of the cause of your anger and nipping it in the bud may even stop a war from happening some day.
Anger spreads far and fast, but remember that peace spreads just as fast, too.
Strength, wisdom & devotion,
Joshua Scott Onysko Founder & CEO Pangea Organics