Viral Anger
Last night I was walking down the street in Los Angeles (yes, some people do walk in LA) and witnessed a fight between two drivers.  This was no ordinary argument between passing cars.  Both drivers got out of their cars and were screaming at one another.  Eventually, even a police officer got involved as the incident played out in the middle of the street and snarled traffic.

What interested me was not the obvious bad behavior on display but my reaction, and the reactions of other people on the street.  I was in a particularly good mood but, within a few seconds, I was filled with rage myself and ready to jump into the middle of the brawl!  Other witnesses seemed just as engaged by this scene that had nothing to do with us.  I began to wonder if anger is something like a particularly nasty virus that has the ability to infect those who come into contact with it.

Anger is primal, often stemming from old wounds unrelated to the situation at-hand.  Many of us, perhaps even all of us, carry around at least a few old grudges that color our reactions.  When someone treats me rudely or slights me, I can sometimes react based on events that happened with I was in High School or even before!  Others have been treated cruely because of race or gender or sexuality and walk through life just waiting for the next cycle of attack and retaliation.

I think this is why anger can function as a virus, crackling through the air from person to person, igniting smoldering old fires.  How else to explain riots or the need to stop and stare at a fistfight?

The shame is that I allowed my evening was ruined by a random act that did not even directly involve me.  In such times, I look back to The Principles to examine my own reactions and, last night, I was reminded of two important ideas that I always need to hold close to me if I am to remain spiritually fit.

Responsibility - When I hang on to old resentments, it is because I am not looking at my part is creating the situation or at why I am so eager to hold on to a hurt that is decades old.  I have to take the word "victim" out of my vocabulary or else I will walk around just waiting for the world to take another swipe at me.  I play a part in every bad thing that happens to me, even if it is only in my reaction.

Forgiveness - When I choose not to forgive people, I am the one being hurt.  The other person goes through their life oblivious to my pain while my days are consumed with rage, looking for revenge.  

We may not even be aware of the anger that lies dormant inside of us.  However, all it takes is being exposed to a fresh dose of rage to reawaken this terrible and debilitating virus.  The good news is that Responsibility and Forgiveness can be an effective vaccine.  


(I have an ambivalent relationship with forgiveness; there is a belief, in some ways, that forgiveness is a get out of jail free card. I don't follow that. I can't. If all the people I had wronged had ever forgiven me, then I still wouldn't be absolved and cannonized; I'd simply be forgiven. It wouldn't make me less culpable, less responsible, or any less human. Forgiveness, for me, says that I accept what is; that I grieve what wasn't; that I learn how to move forward, for myself, to what can be)