"Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel of both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back - in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you." -Frederick Buechner
I like this quote. The emotion of anger is chiefly an issue of being unforgiving. At someone, or something, or both. Indeed, when I can't "let something go" the person it hurts the most is definitely myself. I've seen this in others but I've also seen it (I'm sorry to say) in myself.
Even when I recognize that I am hurting myself by hanging onto wounds, I still cling! That is the part that makes no sense but Buechner's quote does illuminate why we cling to our hurts so tightly. Subconsciously I guess we all like to wallow in our pain a little.
Truly one of my pet peeves is people who hold a grudges. When I'm privy to witness it, it seems silly and immature. "Why can't they just move on," I'll wonder. But, when it is my very own grudge to hold I'm as vigilant as the next guy about relinquishing my grasp. The irony of my behavior is not lost on me. Thankfully I don't get angry very easily so perhaps that's my saving grace while I'm working on being more forgiving generally!
"Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits. -Hannah More, English religious writer
