{"id":10304,"date":"2015-04-29T21:18:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T01:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?p=10304"},"modified":"2015-04-29T21:18:10","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T01:18:10","slug":"passion-vs-anger-and-poetry-to-bank-the-wrong-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2015\/04\/passion-vs-anger-and-poetry-to-bank-the-wrong-fires.html","title":{"rendered":"passion vs anger, and poetry to bank the wrong fires"},"content":{"rendered":"
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While I’m passionate about many things (politics, tea, food, books, poetry…), I usually only get really<\/em> angry about a few things. The main one is mean people.<\/p>\n

I know: ‘mean girls.’ But seriously? If you’re mean to my friends or family, or even really mean to someone in my presence, I will NOT be a happy camper. And I will almost certainly let you know about it. Since I consider the family of my friends & family (& dear colleagues) my\u00a0<\/em>friends, I get angry at more people than I might otherwise.<\/p>\n

You can be mean to me — I’ll manage. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself. But if you’re mean to my people, I’ll be furious.<\/p>\n

Right now, I’m beyond furious. I’m enraged, and heart-broken, to boot. I can’t STAND mean people!! You don’t get to make snarky comments to people who are much nicer than you are, more generous than you are, and probably smarter you are, and then pretend you didn’t. This is not nice, and I won’t be okay with it.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, I don’t always have the luxury of telling people what I think of them. Well, it’s unfortunate for me only, probably. My nephew once told my son he’d rather be beaten by the principal than lectured by me, his aunt. (To be honest? I thought that was a high compliment!) In other words, I wield a mean tongue when riled.<\/p>\n

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This isn’t good beginner’s heart, I realise. I should be more compassionate to people who are such miserable sots that they take it out on others. But I’m not that kind of compassionate — I’m more a warrior than a nurturer, I’m afraid. Hence the whole engaged Buddhism thing<\/a>. If you’re afraid of people who look different from you, and you want to legislate your own fears? Tough luck. Grow up. Push your boundaries. Learn something about cultural differences.<\/p>\n

But don’t beat up on unarmed men. Don’t kill unarmed men. Don’t be mean to people I love. Take a deep breath, and remember that\u00a0every<\/em>\u00a0wisdom tradition teaches love. NOT\u00a0ONE teaches hate. There’s a reason for that: love heals. Hate? It kills. Sometimes w\/ a bullet. Sometimes w\/ a broken spine. Sometimes w\/ the slow poison of spite\u00a0and malice. It’s all the same once you’re dead…<\/p>\n

So as we enter the last days of National Poetry Month, here’s a poem\u00a0on anger. It seems appropriate as I grieve for Baltimore, and its beleaguered peoples.<\/p>\n

Talk<\/a><\/p>\n

~ by Kwame Dawes<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For August Wilson\r\n\r\nNo one quarrels here, no one has learned\r\nthe yell of discontent\u2014instead, here in Sumter\r\nwe learn to grow silent, build a stone\r\nof resolve, learn to nod, learn to close\r\nin the flame of shame and anger\r\nin our hearts, learn to petrify it so,\r\nand the more we quiet our ire,\r\nthe heavier the stone; this alchemy\r\nof concrete in the vein, the sludge\r\nof affront, until even that will calcify\r\nand the heart, at last, will stop,\r\nunassailable, unmovable, adamant.\r\n\r\nFind me a man who will stand\r\non a blasted hill and shout,\r\nfind me a woman who will break   \r\ninto shouts, who will let loose\r\na river of lament, find the howl\r\nof the spirit, teach us the tongues\r\nof the angry so that our blood,\r\nmy pulse\u2014our hearts flow\r\nwith the warm healing of anger.\r\n\r\nYou, August, have carried in your belly\r\nevery song of affront your characters\r\nhave spoken, and maybe you waited\r\ntoo long to howl against the night,\r\nbut each evening on some wooden\r\nstage, these men and women,\r\nlearn to sing songs lost for centuries,\r\nlearn the healing of talk, the calming\r\nof quarrel, the music of contention,\r\nand in this cacophonic chorus,\r\nwe find the ritual of living<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While I’m passionate about many things (politics, tea, food, books, poetry…), I usually only get really angry about a few things. The main one is mean people. I know: ‘mean girls.’ But seriously? If you’re mean to my friends or family, or even really mean to someone in my presence, I will NOT be a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[335,985,87],"tags":[1270,11,1181,1187,262,51,1228,999,1263,568,1215],"class_list":["post-10304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anger","category-national-poetry-month","category-racism","tag-anger","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-coping-with-anger","tag-engaged-buddhism","tag-kwame-dawes","tag-national-poetry-writing-month","tag-race-in-america","tag-social-justice"],"yoast_head":"\npassion vs anger, and poetry to bank the wrong fires - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While I'm passionate about many things (politics, tea, food, books, poetry...), I usually only get really angry about a few things. 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