Hit Like U Mean It!

Task 21, May 23 to May 30

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Buddha

I lose my shit over the most trivial things, like slow internet and slow drivers (I shout “get out of the way, grandpa–even though I’m a grandpa); loud chewers, warm milk, people talking loudly into their phones, spam emails, calls from my insurance agent, somebody (and you know who you are) commandeering my tv remote (note I said “my”); people who walk too close to me, people in motorized shopping carts at Costco, when I walk into a room and forget what I came for, the buzz of a mosquito, a wet sock and airports. Anything to do with airports.

How do I deal with daily frustrations? Normally I just swallow them and let them fester until I lash out in an uncontrollable rage and alienate everyone around me. One day, to release the tension, I put a hammer to a nail and pounded it.

Then I had an epiphany: I scraped together 20 bucks. I drove to a Goodwill. I bought an assortment of stuff to whack, i.e. candy dishes, ashtrays, salt and pepper shakers, old toys, a cake plate or soup bowl, a stack of old record albums, and a kid's dresser, which was orange and made of particle board.

I brought everything home, lugged it to the back yard, then got my baseball bat–which had been sitting unused since 2002, put on my safety glasses (actually a pair of readers)--then let fly. I became a smashing machine. The onslaught lasted about 15 minutes (I only stopped once for water), and destroyed everything.

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Then I cleaned up the mess.

I related this to a friend, who is much more learned than me, and he was also a bit liquored up, and he looked at me quietly for a moment, then said:

An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.He said, "A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, "a fight between two wolves. A Dark Wolf and a Light Wolf.

The Dark one is evil - he is anger. The Light Wolf is good - he is joy, peace and love. The same fight is going on inside you grandson…and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.”

The grandson pondered this for a moment and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, "The one you feed".

I said, “So beating on Goodwill crap is feeding the Light Wolf?”

He said, “yes it is. And order another round.”

TASK:

If walloping cheap goods doesn’t appeal to you, simply make a weekly list of what really pisses you off and/or frustrates you.