How I got my Bad

Once, when we were little, Jonnie and me were playing and Jonnie got hurt, and started crying.

I started larfing. Jonnie hated that, when you started larfing at him. Then mum came and blamed me for everything and said she was going to tell dad. And I got really upset and screamed at mum and pushed her … Can't remember what happened next, but anyway, that's how I got my bad.

Since then my bad's got worse, a lot worse. Like when I was waiting for a taxi and then a taxi came and a girl tried to steal my taxi, and how she screamed and cried and…

But anyway, that's how I got my bad, and that's how my bad got worse.

And now I'm scared 'cos my worst is still to come.

The taste of anger

Anger is an acquired taste, like the taste for blue cheese or witchetty grubs. When you first drink at the Well of Anger, you’re not sure you like it. In fact, you don't like it at all. But you soon learn. And the deeper you drink, the quicker you learn.

Many times have I been drunk on Anger. Many times have I chased that oh-so-delectable feeling of being out of control, of being authorised -- even empowered -- to transgress boundaries I wouldn't even dream of transgressing under calmer, gentler circumstances.

Rage is an even headier brew -- the bitter toxicity of it burns your throat as you gulp it down. Rage makes you feel... fine and hot!

Technique for managing anger

As a person who has carried a heavy burden of anger for most of his life, I have found the following three-stage technique for controlling anger effective and useful. The technique (thought, word, deed) is based on the yoga of visualisation and affirmation.

Stage 1, Thought. Take a long, slow, deep breath and while you are doing that visualise these words scrolling across a screen in front of your mind's eye:

Thank you XYZ* for helping me understand that there is no requirement for me to feel anger, and that if I wish I can extinguish my anger. I reach deep into myself. I gently and lovingly take hold of my red, boiling ball of anger, bitterness, resentment, frustration...

Visualise the hot, red, glowing ball of anger deep inside yourself. Inside the ball is your angry self, your mouth wide open, shouting, screaming in rage, fists beating furiously against the inside of the ball. Visualise your hands gently taking hold of the ball. Now start exhaling, long and slow, while you continue visualising the words and the images described by the words.)

the pact

Once upon a Frosty Friday
In the merry month of May
Seven sisters swore a secret pact
To bind them night and day

They packed the pact up tight and good
Within a pact-box made of wood
Seven sisters thought that that was that
Or so they thought they understood

Each went about her daily life
In which misogyny was rife
Forgotten was the deadly pact
Until the first became a wife

Their tragic story must be told
Six sisters bought but one was sold ...