Memoirs of a Fat Girl

Starbucks The Way I See It #80

Anger is a vital life force. Channeled artistically or nondestructively, it has the power to move worlds.
Alanis Morisette

So sayeth she who sold just how many Jagged Little Pill albums based on this philosophy?

Millions.

She's right, though. Anger is a vital life force. At first glance you'll be tempted to think otherwise, when you notice just how many bad things in this world come from anger: abuse, violence, corruption.

But then think how many good things come from anger, when it's used in a positive way. Free Tibet concerts, the One campaign, and Take Back the Night. I'm guessing Martin Luther King Jr. would never be in our history books if he'd just been feeling dandy all the time.

It's the overall drive to do better, is what it is. I don't like this about the world, therefore I want it to change. I don't like this about my life, therefore I want it to change.

I don't like this about me. Therefore, I must change.

Anger is not a positive emotion, at least that's what we're taught. But whenever you really looked at yourself in the mirror or put your life under the magnifying glass, was it happiness that made you want to make a difference, or make you strive for more?

In most cases, I'm totally confident in saying, I think not.

I know not.

The angriest I've ever been in my life, hands down, was at a certain someone bent on making me miserable. It didn't destroy me, rather, it took me down the exact road I needed to be on: letting go.

Maybe sometimes, a good dose of anger is just what you need.

Does it sound weird to say, become friends with your anger? It's not out to get you, rather, it wants to be happy just as much as you do. If fed the proper way, like everything in our lives, it could be just the ingredient we need for that bigger difference.