HIT IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT

Task 13, March 22 to March 29

"Non-violence is fine as long as it works". Malcolm X

I have anger issues. I admit it. How do I know? I rage at things that I can't control. That's not healthy. It's spontaneous most of the time, i.e if I get cut off in traffic I might slap the dashboard in frustration, or if Ohio State gets beat I might throw a pillow (although, in the spirit of full discloser, I did kick a tv set in Vegas when the Buckeyes lost on a last second field goal), or once I kicked the A/C unit when it shuddered to a stop in a heat wave...

You get the picture. As I aged I began to accept that my anger was a problem and can't be controlled if I ignored it. My wife "convinced" me to see a therapist and although I resisted (to put it mildly), I eventually started to see someone. And it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Not by a long shot (an hour a week watching "The Bachelor" is worse). As a matter of fact, I found that I like to talk. And through talking I got in touch with my stuff. That's how I put it: in touch with my stuff.

And I came up with a form of therapy as well. It's called breaking things. I'm not talking about accidentally breaking something. I’m talking about breaking things on purpose.

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I get twenty, twenty five bucks, go to Goodwill, and buy all kinds of breakable crap, like candy dishes, ashtrays, salt and pepper shakers, old toys, a cake plate or soup bowl, or just by a stack of old record albums, an old side chair or kid's dresser or a coffee table--anything, frankly, that I think that I can break. I bring it home, put it on the ground behind the garage, go grab my baseball bat and whack the shit out of the stuff. Once it's mashed, I pick it all up and throw it away. It has never not been enjoyable.

TASK:

Go get some breakable things, find a bat, and crush it. I recommend some protective glasses--I had a bit of plastic from an old nerf gun that I was whacking fly up and hit my on the forehead; and gloves, mostly for picking up after.