Being Positive

When the genes for being angry about stuff were handed out I obviously received a fair few. Fortunately over time I've learnt to control those feelings with a reasonable degree of success, but I've always been thankful for having the capacity for such feelings, and I'm rather concerned about the development of a general social mind-set that might seek to deny them or regard being angry in an entirely negative light. I'm with Blake on this (as usual): Damn braces (and he wasn't talking about the things that hold your trousers up or put your teeth straight) and sometimes you need to be braced if you intend to effect change.

I'm very distinctly angry about something at the moment, and have been since Friday morning. (This has nothing to do with my students or loved ones, by the way, so don't panic if you're reading this and come under those categories and think I'm on the warpath.) What I'm angry about is small potatoes in the great sum of things and I've been very successfully not obsessing about it. But I have been coolly calculating the situation with an end in mind. I intend to do a small amount of good within my tiny corner of the universe rather than pretending that everything is okay.

I'm also keenly aware that it's no use being angry with the players involved in the situation, so I'm not, at least not in any conscious manner. But I'm quite prepared to reveal a degree of my anger to them as a means to an end. What I'm wary about is the distorting glass of righteous indignation - always a danger for someone of my kidney, but I'm not seeing too much of that around. And another thing I've learnt over time is not to allow a reasonable degree of reflection to turn into agonising. Once you know you have to act, then do so. And I will.