Anger is the Dragon Who Lives Under My Bed

Anger is the dragon who lives under my bed.

Anger is a response, a feeling that reacts to a stimulus.

Everyone feels angry at times,

But not everyone IS angry.

Anger can be a temporary rash

Or a cancer of the soul.

There is righteous anger, justifiable anger that flashes/

And there is an anger that flashes, but does not fade.

But when it does not leave, but take up residence, then it is an affliction.

It is an affliction that eats the soul from the inside,

Until the host of this affliction is angry,

but is anger rather than feels angry.

Bitter acid consumes its own container

And bitter anger is a terminal condition, a persistent affliction.

I have known angry people, and they could never really explain their anger.

They recited a litany that sounded to them like slights and injustices,

But sounded to me like fears nursed and nourished in that growing void in the soul

Eaten dry by anger. And they try to cure that anger by directing it at others,

When there is no slight, but only fear.

And love is the only salve that soothes this affliction,

But it must be applied before it is too late.

Diagnose the affliction by asking, “What do you fear?”

And treat the affliction, by asking, “What do you love?”

Before it is too late.

Like the child who fears the dragon under his bed,

Turn on the light and the dragon disappears.

Love is the light, the cure, and the salve.