I find myself wondering, this morning, how we can begin to reduce the amount of anger in the world. The snap responses and rage seem to appear and re-escalate every attempt to defuse and begin to heal our cultural divides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I realize as I write these words, that the only possible answer is to start with myself. Where else can I get a toe-hold? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I learned in Judo and Jiu Jitsu \u2013 in my body, because my mind wasn\u2019t ready for it \u2013 to stop waiting for the other person to do some thing that I wanted, and instead to always consider \u201chow can I adjust -myself- to improve the situation?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I\u2019m doing that now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m going to try to be as kind as I can today \u2013 to everybody \u2013 whether or not they \u201cdeserve\u201d it, without checking to see if we agree on the issues of the day, and without expecting anything in return. I\u2019m going to try to turn down my own rage, and to turn down my tendency to trigger other people into rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This doesn\u2019t mean yielding on my beliefs or assenting to horrible things. I will continue to speak up for the change I think we need to see in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m just going to try to be kind as I do it, and if I can \u2013 to elicit kindness in return. To everybody. No exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know that many of the people who read these words already do this, every day. For that, thank you. You are helping. You are an inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know that many of the people who read these words are in a place where nothing other than rage is possible, even for a short time. I know how that is. I\u2019ve had a ferocious temper \u2026 really strong emotional responses \u2026 my whole life. Rage is strength. Rage lets you endure the un-endurable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know that I will not be perfect at this. I\u2019ve made this decision countless times before. I will try and fail and try again and hopefully improve over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My reward, I hope, will be to live in a world with slightly less rage and anger. That\u2019s what I want. I want that for you too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m sharing because, I think that there may be some people who may read these words who might be in a similar place to me. As I\u2019ve gotten older, I\u2019ve realized the truth of what I was taught year over year by mentors and teachers \u2026 that people are actually much more similar than we are different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if you\u2019re reading this, and if you\u2019re in a place where you can choose to be kind, without giving up your strength and commitment to justice, equity, and all the rest, then I want to invite you:Let\u2019s be kind together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I find myself wondering, this morning, how we can begin to reduce the amount of anger in the world. The snap responses and rage seem to appear and re-escalate every attempt to defuse and begin to heal our cultural divides. And I realize as I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-bloggin","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1994"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1996,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions\/1996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}