It occurred to me today that one of the great challenges I face sometimes is not being too angry. <\/p>\n
Anger can be useful — it can motivate, it can focus, and can drive — but it seems to me that there are so many things out there in the world (not just in my life and immediate surroundings, but in the world outside) to be angry about, that it can go beyond motivating and focusing and driving, and spill into the world of stark, raving fury at humanity.<\/p>\n
I mean, there is so much evil, willful stupidity, malice, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, greed, betrayal, fraud, laziness, manipulation, agendas, conspiracies, impoliteness, plots, deceit, game-playing, and just plain nastiness<\/em> out there, that it can, if I let it, drive me … nuts.<\/p>\n And I really don’t want to be one of those people who run around frothing at the mouth all the time over things. I want to be happy. I want people around me to be happy. I don’t want to be blithely ignorant and all Doctor Panglossy — but I cannot afford to let everything that could<\/em> make me angry actually<\/em> make me angry.<\/p>\n “If you aren’t outraged,” the bumper sticker says, “you aren’t paying attention.” But I can only be so outraged so long. I can only let the world push my buttons so much. I can only pay so much attention to what’s out there<\/em> without what’s in here<\/em> suffering. I can’t let the bastards grind me down, as another bumper sticker says.<\/p>\n If I’m shouting and glowering more than I’m smiling and laughing, it’s not a good thing, for me or for the world. Or so it seems to me.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It occurred to me today that one of the great challenges I face sometimes is not being too angry. 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WHY? Next up ... why are there ghosts chasing Pac Man? WHY?","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26877,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/06\/why-is-nobody-happy-in-the-dc-new-universe.html","url_meta":{"origin":10195,"position":1},"title":"Why is nobody happy in the DC New Universe?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Mar-12 11:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, I know -- big new vision, modern relevance, publisher fanboys out to change the word ... But, damn, the DCnU is a grim place. Superman, the \"Big Blue Boy Scout,\" is in two series -- one in which he's an angry (and feared) young Clark Kent, just sorting out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.toplessrobot.com%2F05.1n021.shazam.C--300x300.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20313,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/02\/24\/angry-birds-psa.html","url_meta":{"origin":10195,"position":2},"title":"Angry Birds PSA","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Feb-11 11:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"Because a pig ... or a bird ... is a horrible thing to waste. (via Sami)","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23449,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/04\/people-spend-1-2-billion-hours-a-year-playing-angry-birds.html","url_meta":{"origin":10195,"position":3},"title":"People spend 1.2 billion hours a year playing Angry Birds","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 4-Nov-11 3:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Crikey. That's an order of magnitude more than has been spent on building Wikipedia since its inception. In just one year.I don't begrudge the creative team here their success, or the folks who played it their enjoyment, or even begin to think that, if only folks weren't playing Angry Birds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31917,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/26\/jack-klugman-one-of-the-angry-men.html","url_meta":{"origin":10195,"position":4},"title":"Jack Klugman, one of the Angry Men","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Dec-12 10:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd forgotten about his appearance in this film, one of my favorites.Reshared post from +Jeff ZimmermanActor Jack Klugman Passed on Christmas Eve...Here he is in 1957 in one Of my Favorite movies of all time..12 Angry Men at the age of 34...He was also the Last Actor from that movie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":592,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/14\/falwell_blames.html","url_meta":{"origin":10195,"position":5},"title":"Falwell blames gays, liberal groups for terrorist attacks","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Sep-01 7:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Falwell blames gays, liberal groups for terrorist attacks Mr. Falwell, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Assuming this bit is true, it's probably the most...","rel":"","context":"In "9-11"","block_context":{"text":"9-11","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/9-11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}