Status Updates From The Enigma of Anger: Essays...

So far sooo good.

“[F]olly comes of pretending to know the world better than it can actually be known. Anger can be one form of that folly. Anger can amount to a bitter certainty that admits to no surprise. Anger is like a young man who takes every flirtation as evidence that women are laughing at him. To expect no surprises is to give no quarter, show no faith, have no fun.”

Of course, our ultimate frustration is with death. In the same way, we might wonder if there is some connection between anger and forgiveness....Is forgiveness really the cessation of anger or its transformation? Can anger not only give way to love but become love as the ultimate expression of our desire to break the bonds that hold us?

“Our modern lives are full of opportunities to make superficial decisions-even as the most important decisions are increasingly made for us. This in itself is probably a major cause of rage in our culture: a sense of limitless self-determination repeatedly undercut by the experience of almost complete powerlessness.”

‘The virtue of humility,’ said Simone Weil, ‘is nothing more or less than the power of attention.’ Attention to what? To everything that reminds us of our humble place in this world: to the other drivers on the road, even to the rock on the side of the road, which has much to tell us if we but get out of our comfortable cars once in a while and give it a good kick.

‘The virtue of humility,’ said Simone Weil, ‘is nothing more or less than the power of attention.’ Attention go what? To everything that reminds us of our humble place in this world: to the other drivers on the road, even to the rock at the side of the road, which has much to tell us if we will but get out of our comfortable cars once in a while and give it a good kick.