About a year ago I flipped through one of my brother's magazines or books on philosophy and buddhism. I recall seeing something about anger, and how the true source of anger is feeling powerless.
That was the first time I'd ever hear those two concepts linked together, but after very little inspection it made a lot of sense: for example, nothing sets me off when I'm driving like someone else driving recklessly, i.e., endangering my life. I become pissed because I'm totally powerless to actually make that other driver treat me and my life with respect.
Intellectually knowing that, however, and absorbing it are two different things, and 35 years of unexamined patterns don't dissolve just because I have more understanding about them.
Interestingly, those times when I've been able to be more mindful of the link between anger and powerlessness, I've found that I'm able to actually see ways to influence my actions and environment more than I initially thought possible, like the whole exercise helps clarify that I'm powerless over some things but not everything.
Tangential theological item that I just thought of now: If anger derives from powerlessness, one could conclude that the omnipotent would never experience anger. Interesting to consider a theology where the deity never behaves in angry or retributive ways.
And, thank you Kelly.
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