In a Conflict with Self and the World

Val enjoys writing prose in rhymes by always leaving a message of a life truism in each piece.

Introduction

Anger is on the flip side of fear in our fight-flight survival mechanism, the one we share with the most of the animal kingdom.

But then it becomes more interesting once that it turns into a constant attitude, with that mechanism becoming trigger-happy, and now seeking targets for its expression. When we are in a constant state of either conscious or unconscious anger, it stems from a sense of being threatened, while no threat exists around.

Then we call it "paranoia", and in its different intensities it's very widespread in the world. People feel insecure, they buy guns, they see social, national, if not even cosmic enemies, they see evil in religious sense, and all in all, they don't really trust anybody anymore.

Their fear, now turning anger, supplies all names as targets -- like Muslims, infidels, Republicans, Democrats, Blacks, Mexicans, Jews, Russians, Chinese...and you can fill the blanks of the rest of that list, if you see anyone left out.

In many cases anger also turns inward, now one tendency being in conflict with another. One side of us wants something and the other is making sure that it doesn't materialize -- what we call self-sabotage.

At that point the "enemy" is not only out there but also in here, so we start producing destructive fears of bad health, we fight bad habits and lose that war battle after battle, we blame ourselves for our failures, even though calling others as co-creators of them.

Needless to reach for a good book in psycho-pathology to classify it -- it's not really a healthy mental habit, and at its extremes it produces antisocial, even criminal behaviors, while in its milder forms it merely keeps generating all those political, religious, racial, and even familial rants.

We don't have to look far for the specimens of chronic anger, they are all around us and everywhere. People are pissed, and my next prose in rhymes is about to poetize all that.

When angry, count four. When very angry, swear.

-- Mark Twain

Inner Conflicts with Neither Side Winning

Let this little anecdote

provide an illustration

about good antidote

to inner confrontation.

Old grandpa -- veteran of World War One

recalls again a battle at a wooded site

often using his point finger as a gun

and describing that merciless fight.

"We attack, and they retreat to the wood

then they regroup and now make us all run

but not for long, so we push hard as we could

so it went back and forth like it wouldn't be done."

Now, little grandson, all impatient, will shout:

"O.K. grandpa -- will you say how it all ends

who stays in wood dead, and who gets out

or you just decided to be all good friends!"

"Well, just when our luck seemed to turn a little good

forest ranger came when a bush started to burn

and kicked our fighting asses out of his wood

warning us not to ever, ever try to return"

Now, this story itself may not deserve a big clap

but if some big dilemmas are conflicting inside

play a forest ranger and just stop all the crap

while not allowing the victory to either side.

Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask: "What else could this mean?"

Question Your Anger

So you think they made you pissed

being so unfair, insolent, and mean

and that's why you clench your fist

so often on brinks to make a scene.

Why not try to see it some other way

before you blast or maybe implode

for what if it's not what others say

but your own dissatisfaction load.

Sometimes we project on other people

what is wrong with us deep inside

then see a tsunami in a ripple

making worlds to collide.

Jerks and fools are easy to ignore

when we enjoy our inner peace

no need to settle any score

or wish battles to cease.

Besides, can you remember old saying

about holding grudge with angry cry:

"It's drinking poison while praying

that someone else would die".

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

-- Mark Twain

Fascination with Violence

They shrug over it as a normal way of life

not seeing how it shames our human race

admiring every idiot with a big gun or a knife

religious, but even cheering at wars in space.

For, haven't we got enough violence on earth

so we need to spread "word of love" beyond

dignifying destruction for all of its crazy worth

advertising violence of which we are so fond.

From toys to movies to each video game

we are coming creative about destruction

after a too long history loaded with shame

as if calling violence our healthy interaction.

How many more world war movies to see

and their reruns, in a lack of new slaughter

is that really what humans are craving to be

"bad-asses" or rapists of someone's daughter.

Are people so poorly educated

not to know it's animalistic and crude

degrading our values so readily celebrated

while presenting a culture primitive and screwed.

© 2020 Val Karas

Comments

Val Karas (author) from Canada on December 21, 2020:

Pamela -- Yeah, Mark Twain was a funny fellow beside being very wise. And he is so right when he says how we are just hurting ourselves with anger. But it's an irony in our nature that anger feels "so good", while it converts fear energy into illusion of having an upper hand in a conflict which we didn't need in the first place.

Thank you for words of praise, my friend, and while talking about world's love -- Merry Christmas to you and to your dear ones.

Val Karas (author) from Canada on December 21, 2020:

Peggy -- It may take a while longer for the mankind to wake up from this nightmare of hostility -- but let's have faith, we've been through so much over the long and unholy history, so maybe we'll just get our adrenal glands exhausted and opt for love instead.

Pamela Oglesby from Sunny Florida on December 21, 2020:

Each of these poems has a message, and I really like the Mark Twain quote also. There is way to much anger in the world. Each of us need to look at our motivations when we get angry over someone else's words or behavior. This is a very good article about anger, Val.

Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on December 21, 2020:

That quote by Mark Twain about anger being an acid is so true. You have brought a good focus to this subject of anger and violence in the world today. We need more love and understanding of one another to calm things down.