WRATH

HMS? His mouldy ship?

I can't be arsed to think about this . . .

I'm not so sure that anger and wrath are entirely the same thing. Emotional anger happens, especially with people who are close to you. It's like that Chris Rock joke on marriage: "For eight years you come home from work, and dinner's on the table at exactly 8:30. For eight years this goes on. Then the one night you come home, and dinner's not on the table, and you ask, hey where's dinner, you get "What am I, your goddamned slave???" That kind of anger can be dealt with through discussion.

Wrath though, that implies lots of insensitive, uncontrollable smiting and I would say that is the darker, less tolerable variety of anger. When in doubt of your anger with your partner, listen first, take a breath and re-evaluate. Keep arguments as short as possible, then have make-up sex. If it's just a stranger that's bugging you though, for whatever reason, just make sure nobody's watching and that the body is well-disposed of.

Truth
Sophia, like you I've always had a "dysfunctional" relationship with anger, my own and that of others. I find it distasteful, obnoxious, and unattractive. I used to even get angry at others for expressing their anger, even when it wasn't towards me. I guess I have feared losing control and love by becoming, in a very subjective sense, unattractive. Later in life, however, I learned to just FEEL my anger. When I do that--just being aware of the physical sensations of anger, e.g., the burning in my nose and the tightening of viscera--I have no need to express it physically (e.g., hitting, breaking things, shouting). I can tell others that I am angry and what I am angry about. In other words, the emotion is less scary, more manageable, now--but not completely unscary!

So many of you have responded with thougts about control of one's anger, and the suggestion that everyone gets angry, and what is important is how one deals with that.

Perhaps this is considered a "deadly sin" only in those cases in which the "sinner" in question does not exercise control.

Thanks for the input, JLNobody.

I'm learning to verbalize my anger, instead of stuffing it. Previously, I tried to keep it to myself to protect my relationships. Figuring out when it is appropriate to stow it, and when it is appropriate to share it is my current dilemna.

I practice sharing it here--but mayhap I am practicing too zealously. (But, I must admit, it is helping IRL.) (A lot.)

This is just now popping into my head, but isn't wrath more along the lines of wishing another person's utter destruction for as long as you both shall live, rather than just getting pissed off every now and then? Or is this just some weird thing my (very, very) baptist forebears out in my soft little head?

Well, the Catholic Church is always willing to cut a deal, even on the Seven Deadly Sins, so let's say....<counts soul points> how about much less wrath, a little justified anger, and we'll call it a minor transgression, okay? Take 10 Hail Mary's, a few Our Father's, and see if you feel okay in the morning.

Expressing one's anger in a reasonable manner is a good thing for the spirit, but taking it too far is a different kettle of fishes and loaves entirely.

Now here is a question: say you are in a committed, proper Christian-style relationship, and you get into, let's say, a mildly wrathful fight, then make up with kindness (your sin therefore being absolved) and have wicked lustful sex (which is a kindness) afterwards, which results in a presumabely god-blessed pregnancy? What then, pray tell? Would you give birth to Damien, Prince of Darkness? Yeah, okay, it's the make up sex thing again, but all you would have to do is say a little forgiveness prayer, stay off the wife for a few days, and all would be well in the world. Anyone know that commercial: "If life could taste as good as Swiss Chalet?"

Or was it loaves and fishes? Bah...McFishes all around!

No.

It's a Canajun thing then.

mmmmmmmmmmmm . . . Swiss Chalet . . .

Hey ! ! !

There ain't no Swiss Chalet here in Ahia . . . now that really, really, REALLY pisses me off . . .