Put Your Anger To Good Use
Great Achievements Can Result From Serviceable Bitterness
Despite the criticisms of doomsday rhetoric, despite how poorly such words are taken by the political elite, by technologists, and by the academic establishment, our global situation demands that we recognize the scope of our problem and no longer turn solely to technology alone, or science alone, or religion alone, for the fix.
We need to develop the people who can give us the best sort of ethos to guide us, even if we use technology, science, and religion as part of the solution.
Unless “we better understand our own behavior and how to change it, we will not use sophisticated technological solutions when and if they become available” (Winter and Koger, 2004, p. 21).
A recognition of this need leads naturally to three questions: What sort of eco-centric elders do we need? How do we produce more of them? What is the sort of ethos that is required for human happiness and ecological sustainability? By the end of the Heartwood Path you will be able to answer each of these questions.
Determine what makes you angry, how that feels, and how to put your anger to good use.
For now, learn what it takes to make a major step towards being a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem. This step has to do with finding the light side rather than just the dark side of anger.
Looking back at the successes I contributed to in my conservation career, it was the love of certain natural places plus the proper channeling of anger over their potential devastation that, over and over, propelled us through difficult times to eventual positive end results. The thought of the long-operating Mullen Farm going under water as a result of the proposed Meramec Dam on one of my favorite canoeing streams, for example, made me livid. And it was the bitterness I felt about the audacity of planning the desecration the finest forest cathedral in Missouri—the Irish Wilderness—that provided the impetus I needed to sustain me over the years of effort that largely ended when that wild place—so precious to me—was added to the National Wilderness Preservation System.
We need to develop the people who can give us the best sort of ethos to guide us.
Hindsight reveals that when I was angry over the thought of some impending destruction of a beloved natural place I worked on the issue; and when I wasn’t, I worked less or not at all. At the time, I didn’t know that I, along with the other leaders, were appropriately channeling our anger in ways that ended in conservation successes.
We were just muddling through. We focused almost solely on the outer world resources. We essentially never focused on our own inner world motivations, resilience, or clarity.
Thanks to what is presented next, you do not have to repeat this more difficult and unimaginative approach.
Given what I now know, I cannot imagine ever justifying the diminishment of anger. Temper your anger. Don’t extinguish it.
