Thought of the Day 11.11.08

Anger is a powerful emotional response to a negative circumstance you care deeply about. But what’s the opposite of anger? This question recently generated a raging discussion on my radio show.

Peacefulness is the opposite in terms of not experiencing strong emotion. Ambivalence is the opposite in terms of not caring. Joy detaches from circumstance entirely and derives meaning from God. And happiness is really the opposite of sadness, not anger. Thus, finding a word that is the positive equivalent of anger’s negative proved rather elusive.

In the end, the best candidate is probably delight, the key being that you can be delighted with a person. The weird thing is how difficult it was to come up with a proper opposite to a concept we are all so easily aware of, a difficulty which indicates a cultural mindset unhealthily imbalanced toward familiarity with anger.

Perhaps if we practice cherishing delight at least as often as we cherish anger, this imbalance might subside.