Or Just Righteous Enough?

Oxford’s definition of righteous

adjective

1. morally right or justifiable. “feelings of righteous indignation about pay and conditions”

Just as soon as I read “feelings” in the definition, I thought, well, no one can argue with my feelings. But can they? Lately, I’m feeling an abundance of feelings about so many things. I feel like I’m in righteous overdrive. Is it the divided world we live in or am I an angry old man?

Things I Have Felt Righteous About (I typed a list yesterday and it disappeared. Now I’m forced to consider what counts):

• Politics (lies and misinformation)
• Selfish behavior
• Boasting
• Dishonesty in relationships
• Smoking around non-smokers without asking if it’s okay
• Recycling (people who act like it’s way too difficult to separate their trash)
• Climate change deniers
• Racism deniers
• People who do not/will not listen
• Lazy people
• Thieves
• Friends, family, and/or strangers who take me for granted. The number of people who think they’re entitled to whatever is astounding. You forget to say thank you the first time you’re forgiven; after that, you’re on your own.
• People who use religion to explain away their bias or hate
• Price gouging
• Laws or rules that make no sense or serve no purpose
• People who fight socialism who do not even knowing the meaning of the concept
• People who see others in pain and turn the other way
• Haters
• Nasty Karens
• Cheaters
• Abusers of all kinds

I’m going to stop there because I’m getting fired up.

Using That Energy

The simple truth is this: if you have anger, rage, resentment, fury, it has to go somewhere or it ends up sitting in your internal organs and festering. Should it go unchecked, it will fester to the point of severe damage. The best thing you can do for yourself is to channel that anger toward something positive. For me, writing is my outlet, my escape valve. When the pressure builds, I write. The other method is to exercise patience; patience takes a lot of energy. If your deliberate in your practice of patience, that energy will become something fruitful and thought provoking.

Case in point: I get angry with a sibling who calls me on a regular basis and talks and talks and talks, but doesn’t bother to ask how I’m doing. I let that steam build this week and I was going to let this family member have it. A piece of my mind was appropriate and there would be no holding back. (This individual does not read my blog, but I still feel compelled to keep his or her name to myself — family will know).

The phone rings and it’s the culprit. I listen. I seeth and I wait for the right moment to pounce.

I’m about to unleash the kraken and my sibling says, “What’s happening with you these days.”

If that lesson is not convincing enough to keep me from jumping the gun, coming out with my fists clenched and my chin out, I don’t know what is. Patience Christopher, patience.

Whether this individual listened to my reply . . . well, that’s a whole other matter. The other life lesson is this: we humans are only capable of so much change. The higher your expectations, the greater the likelihood of disappointment. Baby steps are all we can hope for.

What Do Others’ Think?

Like most, I pay way too much attention to social media. Whenever I’m feeling particularly righteous about something happening in the public arena (i.e., politics), I notice a post gets a lot less attention than say, a cute picture of my dog Paco. Or perhaps, people notice my outrage and agree with me; however, they made a vow to stay away from politics on social media and they’re sticking to it. That sort of gets under my skin. Waiting for a big election to come around is not the time to protest. Right now is the time to counter the false narrative.

The other side of it of course is that I am preaching to the choir: the people in my life who are my tribe . . . the people in my life that I respect and admire because they agree with me. In truth, there are a few people in my orbit who are on the fence; these people are not 100% one way or the other. These uncertain few are my audience when I go off on a rant. I know of two people in my close circle of friends who have come over to my side. It is for this reason that I will not stop putting the facts out there and presenting a raional, truthful, common sense perspective; in my opinion.

“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”

– Aristotle