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Super effective ways to cool the flames of anger

It’s hard to know exactly how angry or non-angry you were when you were younger. People tend to remember events rather than emotions, and most of them don’t have reliable graphs of their angritude that go back for decades.

Nonetheless, I’m pretty sure I’m less angry now than I was between the ages of 13 and 24. I know I got angry somewhat regularly during that era because anger often registered at the conscious level, and I remember enjoying the experience of becoming angry. For quite a while, I’ve felt rather relaxed, perhaps more relaxed than average, and maybe a bit more relaxed than is beneficial.

A couple hours ago at the bus stop, however, I was not relaxed at all. I had this intense spike of anger. I don’t think I’ve felt that enraged in years. Why? Because the bus drove right past the bus stop at which I was waiting. So, I ran and caught up to it at the next stoplight, and the driver would not let me on.

Now, that is certainly bullshit, but in that moment, the thought that exploded in my head as I was, “YOU FUCKS! I’LL DESTROY YOUR ENTIRE SYSTEM WITH HATRED!” And I didn’t even know what I meant.

I walked back to the bus stop, incensed, called the MBTA to report the bus, and smoldered some more. Two things cooled me down:

1. I overheard a guy with dreadlocks use the line “I feel like you’re a magnetic person…” on some girl.
2. I thought of Piplup.

piplup_drumming

(For a while, I had some time on my hands and browsed through quite a bit of Bulbapedia. It can be engrossing!) Piplup’s color text reads:

A poor walker, it often falls down. However, its strong pride makes it puff up its chest without a care.

Piplup may eventually “evolve” into Prinplup, who is described as such:

It lives alone, away from others. Apparently, every one of them believes it is the most important.

After reading this, Katt and I have speculated about him. We imagine he’s impatient, selfish, and easy to anger. He’s probably indignant about having to wait in lines. He often yells at waitstaff. He explodes when roommates use his peanut butter that he, Piplup, bought with his money. Piplup, Piplup, Piplup!

Anyway, my thoughts drifted to how this Piplup would react to such an event: Most likely with an indignant explosion of rage. This realization was quite diffusing. I was forced to let it go.

I most certainly believe in the value of righteous anger and the importance of sticking up for one’s self. When the bus skips your stop, though, it’s useful to think: Are you reacting like an inconvenienced traveler or a self-important magic penguin?

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 3 Comments

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    Oh yeah! I forgot about my personal method of handling anger at strangers who have wronged me. As soon as they're out of my sight, I imagine that they get run over by a bus. So there's no point in being angry at them because they're squished.

    It's super effective!
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    I've been trying to find ways to lessen my anger lately. It's usually road rage kind of situations that get me fired up. One thing that's helped me is to look back at anger incidents after the fact and think about the effects and consequences. Realizing that my angry responses (a) have absolutely no positive effect on the situation that is making me angry, and are therefore useless; and (b) accomplish nothing but ruining my day and making me a crabby asshole, at least gives me something to think about before getting angry next time.

    I also think that, like the magic penguin, a lot of anger comes from artificially inflating the importance of things. I mean, in any kind of wider scheme of things, some dude cutting you off on the freeway is absolutely meaningless, yet in the moment it can be the greatest insult anyone has ever laid on you. Come to think of it, most angry situations in life stem from not being able to think beyond the moment. Whoever came up with that "living in the moment" idea should be sued for malpractice.
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    That birds are so cute. Parts of those descriptions remind me of myself. Oh yes, and I'm more angry now than in the past. Before I was calm and let things slide to the point of being a pushover. Nowadays, I don't let people get away with things. I try to be more assertive than simply snarky, though.

    Oh my, I thought only buses in Alberta did that. How horrible of the driver. The best scenario would be bus ticket compensation. *crosses fingers* At the very least, I hope the driver is reprimanded.
 
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