I attended some poetry workshops one summer at a library in Albany New York. The facilitator introduced us to what he called Arabic Curses: short, pithy, and to the point creative use of words such as the "Friendship Prayer" above [author unknown to me]. Very shortly, all of us grown people were writing things like:
May your cat kick its litter all over you
and after pulling the plug on your bathwater
may you dwindle down the drain.
I haven't written any since then and that was more than twenty years ago. The world has changed so much since then-- I hesitated to name this blog "Arabic Curses." But indeed, that is what this particular literary convention was introduced to me as. Accuracy won out over my initial cowardice.
People have accused me of being angry like anger is a bad thing, or even of being "too" angry. I believe that anger is part of the human condition. Anger is not a 'secondary' emotion. I know this because fight is one of the primitive responses of the reptilian brain to adrenaline rushes. A
And depression is not 'Anger turned inward.' Biologically-based depression is a medical condition whose etiology or etiologies cannot be reduced to one phrase. To say that depression is a result of unexpressed anger is to grossly mistake cause and one possible effect or symptom.
Anger has been my truest friend. Anger is the friend that informs me when someone around me is attempting to play games, engage in manipulation for his or her own benefits or needs, or act as predator does waiting for weaker human beings to show up with their raw vulnerabilities exposed. Clear anger comes from the gut. Anger tells me the truth about other people and about myself. Anger heals me in ways that simplistic talk about forgiveness was never able to.
Anger and I will continue to walk together and talk together with an honesty that few friends know and can afford.
~sapphoq n friends on friend anger
