okieinexile
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Head, chest, belly, etc.
By Bobby Neal Winters
I’ve seen it written that the head controls the belly through the chest; this means our mind controls our appetites through the virtues. This was said either by Plato or C.S. Lewis. Or maybe Oprah, I forget.
It sounds like a good idea to me. I wonder if it has ever been tried.
I am coming to learn, so late in life, that the belly, the appetites, the emotions are essential to us. With the appetites gone, with the emotions numbed, with the belly silenced, the passions banished, we would lie in bed all day and not even think. They are the engine that drives us.
There are, of course, emotions and emotions. Love—dare I say even lust—can get us to move out of our mother’s basement and into our lover’s arms. Fear can get us out of the front door of the house to go to work.
But what about anger? What good is that?
Anger is my least favorite emotion, or so I say. I know that, when I was a child, my tears were caused more often by anger than by grief or pain.
I don’t like the taste anger leaves in my mouth; I order my life to avoid experiencing it; but it can be so powerful within me sometimes that I am unable to ignore it. It comes to the front of my head and I can feel in burning in my eyes and taste its bitterness in my throat.
At those times, I christen it with its own name, Fury, and pay it special attention.
Anger is, for me, unpleasant to feel, though some I know seem to like it, to court it, to nurse it. Having said that, I will admit that some of my best writing has been done because I was angry.
Emotions are a gift from God. Anger is one of those gifts given to us to let us know something ought to be changed. I believe this. I also believe that the really hard part is when the thing I ought to change is me.
There are people who have the absolute belief that if they are angry with someone this should be public knowledge. This tendency is made perfect in some individuals who will blow their stacks at the first hint of the emotion, and, indeed, they view those who don’t do such as being dishonest.
If you think I am talking about you here, I am afraid you are mistaken. It was the person behind you. Sorry for the confusion.
Explosions of anger, fits of rage, even when no acts of violence result, have a way of damaging relationships.
My favorite example of controlled anger is that of Michael Corleone contrasted with his brother Sonny. If you’ve seen The Godfather, you know Sonny went down in a hail of bullets because he let his rage go unchecked. He didn’t stop to think. Michael, by way of contrast, controlled his anger and acted in a rational manner at a time of his own choosing. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating putting hits on your enemies while your niece is being baptized. I am, however, advocating control. Control gives time to think about the ramifications of our actions. It gives us time to put things into perspective.
With control, we can plan out our actions whether it be garroting a brother-in-law in a car as he kicks the windshield out or explaining to someone that “when you say things like that it hurts me” or maybe doing both things at the same time.
It’s all that head, chest, belly thing that I mentioned earlier.
(Bobby Winters, a native of Hardin City, Oklahoma, is Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Mathematics, and Acting Chair of the Department of Chemistry.)
By Bobby Neal Winters
I’ve seen it written that the head controls the belly through the chest; this means our mind controls our appetites through the virtues. This was said either by Plato or C.S. Lewis. Or maybe Oprah, I forget.
It sounds like a good idea to me. I wonder if it has ever been tried.
I am coming to learn, so late in life, that the belly, the appetites, the emotions are essential to us. With the appetites gone, with the emotions numbed, with the belly silenced, the passions banished, we would lie in bed all day and not even think. They are the engine that drives us.
There are, of course, emotions and emotions. Love—dare I say even lust—can get us to move out of our mother’s basement and into our lover’s arms. Fear can get us out of the front door of the house to go to work.
But what about anger? What good is that?
Anger is my least favorite emotion, or so I say. I know that, when I was a child, my tears were caused more often by anger than by grief or pain.
I don’t like the taste anger leaves in my mouth; I order my life to avoid experiencing it; but it can be so powerful within me sometimes that I am unable to ignore it. It comes to the front of my head and I can feel in burning in my eyes and taste its bitterness in my throat.
At those times, I christen it with its own name, Fury, and pay it special attention.
Anger is, for me, unpleasant to feel, though some I know seem to like it, to court it, to nurse it. Having said that, I will admit that some of my best writing has been done because I was angry.
Emotions are a gift from God. Anger is one of those gifts given to us to let us know something ought to be changed. I believe this. I also believe that the really hard part is when the thing I ought to change is me.
There are people who have the absolute belief that if they are angry with someone this should be public knowledge. This tendency is made perfect in some individuals who will blow their stacks at the first hint of the emotion, and, indeed, they view those who don’t do such as being dishonest.
If you think I am talking about you here, I am afraid you are mistaken. It was the person behind you. Sorry for the confusion.
Explosions of anger, fits of rage, even when no acts of violence result, have a way of damaging relationships.
My favorite example of controlled anger is that of Michael Corleone contrasted with his brother Sonny. If you’ve seen The Godfather, you know Sonny went down in a hail of bullets because he let his rage go unchecked. He didn’t stop to think. Michael, by way of contrast, controlled his anger and acted in a rational manner at a time of his own choosing. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating putting hits on your enemies while your niece is being baptized. I am, however, advocating control. Control gives time to think about the ramifications of our actions. It gives us time to put things into perspective.
With control, we can plan out our actions whether it be garroting a brother-in-law in a car as he kicks the windshield out or explaining to someone that “when you say things like that it hurts me” or maybe doing both things at the same time.
It’s all that head, chest, belly thing that I mentioned earlier.
(Bobby Winters, a native of Hardin City, Oklahoma, is Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Mathematics, and Acting Chair of the Department of Chemistry.)
