Unpolished musings

With mine love I doth attack thee.
Love returned thy defence,
or flee thou must.

For love doth see,
and if thou canst not love,
wouldst thou be seen?




Back when I was mad, when I thought I was the Archangel Michael and I hung out homeless in Cambridge town centre, I had an acquaintance who was a punk. He was a similar age to me and also homeless and the epitome of punk from the skinhead to the leathers to the inquisitive but densely impenetrable attitude. I remember sitting on stone steps with him, probably not far from the slightly fancy McDonalds that they finally permitted in the cobbled and hallowed lanes of Cambridge town centre, we'd just been to one of the several regular food handouts for the homeless that existed in the mid-nineties.

He punched me in the jaw. Hard enough to notice, but not that hard really all things considered. He seemed to be wondering what I would do next. His company wasn't that bad and he didn't look like he was going to do it again. So I ign…

Speaking Up for Anger Anger wants to be heard. If anger feels not listened to it gets louder. Telling anger you can't hear, won't listen, because it's too loud doesn't work. The volume might go down but the anger is still there. If your'e afraid of anger you can probably still feel it. Anger that's not dealt with, not expressed and not heard, festers.

Try not to be afraid of anger. And being angry at anger just because it's loud might be a mistake. Something deeply heartfelt is really upset that nobody ever seems to listen to it. And you're telling it to shut up again. To be quiet and go away, nobody wants to see that.

Let people be angry and listen to anger. It might take a bit of untangling, strong emotions always do. People do use strong emotions, of all kinds, to manipulate and intimidate, but it's so easy to mistake strongly felt anger for aggression.

Anger, like sexuality, can be so hard to control and so easy to cause harm with. Which makes …