anger

He tells the other guy he’s feeling cranky and the other guy says, “Yeah. You maybe just need to eat. Like, a lot of times when you think you’re angry about something you’re actually just hungry or tired or something.”

“Yeah, I haven’t eaten much today,” he says.

“What have you had?”

“Just like some chips and stuff.”

“You should have a protein bar or something,” the other guy says.

“Yeah, I might.”

“Also,” the other guy says, “in stoicism there is this concept of just allowing things to be versus resisting them. There was this guy who was going to be put in prison and he said something like, ‘you might put my body in prison but not me.”

“Heh,” he says, “that’s really cool.”

“Yeah, like anyone who angers you has conquered you. You might not like hearing that.”

“No. It’s true,” he says.

“Yeah. Like you can choose to react differently, I guess, is kind of the message. Anger is more like a symptom. It’s like a stomach ache.”

“Wish it would go away,” he says.

“Let it,” the other guy says gently while looking at him.

“Not sure it’s like all that easy for me though,” he says.

“I know. But maybe it helps to think of it that way. Like that you’re choosing it over something else and you can choose something else. Like to eat a protein bar. Or you could think about things you like.”

“Yeah. I sometimes act like my thoughts choose me and I don’t choose my thoughts. But I guess that isn’t true.”

“Yeah, it’s hard though,” the other guy says.

“Oh wait, are you flushing those urinals?” the other guy asks.

“Oh, no, I was just acid washing them.”

“Yeah, hold on. Watch this. After I acid wash, I take my bleach bottle like this, boom, I hit the handle with the bottom of my bottle so I don’t touch it.”

“Boom,” he says.

“Executed,” the other guy says.