First published: Pevensey Bay Journal
Edition 26, Saturday 25 May 2019
available in local newsagents, priced 40pence
The work of Father Tony Windross as a writer and author is marked. The Thoughtful Guide to Faith (2003) received interesting reviews. John Shelby “Jack” Spong, a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church and a liberal Christian theologian, said this book will escape the walls of the church and be debated everywhere.
What rattles your cage? Or does nothing much get to you? Are you often on the point of boiling over? Or are you generally pretty laid back?
There’s certainly an awful lot of angry people around – and given that human nature doesn’t seem to change much, it’s probably always been like this.
Well over 2000 years ago (and some 300 years before the birth of Christ) the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote ‘it is easy to get angry: anyone can do it. But to be angry with the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy; and not everyone can do it’.
But is anger ever right? If so – when? What about if someone pushes in front of me in the supermarket queue? Or forces me to brake whilst I’m driving? Or doesn’t seem to care if the lives of the poor are getting even more difficult? Or is completely unmoved about climate change? Or is cruel to animals?
Each of these make some people angry – and some make almost everyone angry. But who’s to say when getting angry is the right thing to do – as opposed to just the easy thing to do? And how should we react when someone is angry with us? Get angry in return? Or try to absorb their anger?
Some anger is the expression of deep inner pain – which can be physical (it’s difficult not to be grumpy if we’ve got raging toothache); or it can be mental/spiritual. And by the latter I mean things like feelings of emptiness or worthlessness or loneliness or hopelessness or sheer inability to cope with life – all of which can result in people shouting and going red in the face, with the trigger often being something incredibly trivial.
It’s sad and embarrassing if that happens – and the person can make themselves look very small in the process. But when someone really ‘loses it’– maybe we need to cut them a bit of slack. For all we know – their entire world may be falling apart.
