Anger: Its Uses and Limitations

The subject this hour is my blog. In addition to someone being obsessed with the search term “Windy Cooler and divorce” and its variations (yes, whoever you are, I have PTSD and John Stith and I are getting a divorce and yes, we genuinely remain friends and family — and yes, we worked very, very hard at establishing this; thank you for asking), the Mother’s Day piece where I just rant and rant for a while is still getting passed around. It is still the most popular thing I have ever written.

It took me about 10 minutes and it was pure primal scream. Not very thoughtful. Funny and on point, it came from the heart; but it is my most popular piece of writing? What do I think about that?

I’m trying to make a living here, eventually. Maybe I should write more stuff like that?

I have noticed too that the political writers that we most like are the people who tell us, in great detail, what to be angry about, what to foam at the mouth about, the people who, honestly, after my experiences with the American Left, I now associate with basement dwelling Star Wars fans that always have something to say about the posters of women on their walls. Always looking at a flawed world as if they are outside judges of it. Sometimes these people are funny. Sometimes they are a little dull or disorganized. But always the message is “Whoa, Look at that! Now, look at that! Now, look at that! Blame! I can point out who to blame!” You can’t focus long enough on all the things they are pointing to do little more than scream with them, like Beaker on the Muppets. Meep!

I am very comfortable with anger. I used to think what made people mediocre, lacking in verve and political and personal get up and go, was a lack of healthy anger. Not sure this obsession with meeping is an example of healthy anger though. Sometimes you have to vent to get to a solution. But the point is to get to a solution.

This kind of ongoing, unrelenting narcissistic anger is just as destructive to human potential as ongoing, unrelenting narcissistic positivism. There is a reality we are all interacting with, that we are, in fact, that we have made and we are making together, that we are responsible for and to. That is responsible to each of us.

We are the world we are trying to make. It is made. And it is being made now by each of us.

Windy Cooler is a psychology student at Goddard College, and a Contributing Author for New Clear Vision. A long-time organizer and former teenage-mother-welfare-queen, she writes about the emotional lives of activists. She has two sons and lives in suburban DC. She blogs at windycooler.com, and can be reached at WindyCooler(at)gmail.com.