Road Rage Roundup

Littledan77 / CC BY 2.0

Here's this weeks roundup of road rage stories:

1. The photo comes to us courtesy of Littledan77, who tells the story of riding his bicycle and being cut off by a car, nearly struck and killed. He was raging and furious, but had a creative vision — this picture. “There was nothing I could do to vent except this picture which to be honest took so long to do that I have calmed down considerably!” Littledan77, you get a pocket full of anger management points for demonstrating how creating a piece of art to express your emotions can greatly reduce the compulsion of anger.


2. Merrimack, NH: A pickup driver became angry at a car that moved into his lane, then braked for a right hand turn. Pickup driver retrieved a “pitchfork-type garden tool” from the bed of the vehicle and proceeded to threaten the other driver and damaged his truck, police said.


3. Norristown, PA: A tale of escalating road rage. James Roban had stopped by Dunkin Donuts and purchased five cups of coffee for his wife and her coworkers. He was waiting to make a left-hand turn at a signal when Scott Peirce pulled up behind him. Roban did not move quickly enough after the light turned green, and Peirce honked at him twice. Roban states that he drove slowly to avoid spilling coffee and that Peirce honked repeatedly and "displayed his middle finger."

   When they reached another traffic light, Pierce began yelling at Roban and flailing his arms, according to court papers. The defendant stated he couldn’t understand what the other driver was saying and reached over and threw one of the cups of coffee through the open window.

   Peirce received second degree burns on his thighs and scrotum. Roban pleaded guilty to simple assault and recklessly endangering another person and must pay Peirce $1,846 and serve two years probation. Why was no anger management required?!?


4. Tasmania, Australia: An insurance company survey found that 60% drivers had been verbally abused and nearly 70% tailgated. 74% had experience rude gestures. I wonder how that compares to Southern California?

bicycle, assault, pitchfork, coffee, burns, anger

4 Benefits of Letting Go of Your Right to Rage

Personal Coach and author, Sharon Cook listed four benefits of letting go of rage.

Improved physical health:

Anger activates the body for an immediate fight. While this activation can improve one's odds of beating (perhaps literally beating) an enemy, when it persists for too long, or happens too frequently, it wears away your health, including excess stomach acid, immune system dysfunction, and cardio-vascular problems. Letting go of your right to rage allows you to reclaim your right to good physical health.

Improved relationships with others

The same skills that help to manage anger (assertive communication and emotional intelligence), lead to improved relationships. When anger is kept and cherished, it often turns into resentment. This resentment can poison one's entire life. Attributed to Buddha is the saying "Holding on to resentment is like drinking poison and hoping that your enemy dies."

More positive outcomes attracted into your life

Focusing on life through the lens of anger causes one to see threats everywhere. Negative events become evidence that others cannot be trusted, that one is a victim. As any good life coach will tell you, this mindset leads to limitations and defeat, rather than positive outcomes and success.

A greater sense of peace and purpose and an easier time in being gentle with yourself

Being willing to forgive others, and practicing letting go of the past makes it much easier to forgive one's self. Practice accepting others and self-acceptance comes automatically. Cultivate a vengeful and judgmental attitude and self-hate will increase as well.

So it all boils down to what one desires in life: the "right" to be angry and the suffering that comes with it, or letting go of the "right" to be anger, and applying the skills of anger management to lessen your own anger and live a more abundant life.

Anger Words: Wroth

wroth. Pronunciation: ˈrȯth also ˈrōth. Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English "wrāth"; akin to Old High German "reid" twisted, Old English "wrīthan" to writhe. Date: before 12th century

Meaning: intensely angry : highly incensed : wrathful

Anger management skills can help prevent twisting one's life up with anger, can help prevent the writhing with suffering that anger leads to. Wroth. Wrath. Rage. It's good to develop a correct understanding of what something is.

Too often, anger masquerades as a powerful way of controlling the world. We imagine it our tool to keep us safe, to impose our will on the world. In reality, it keeps people from wanting to cooperate with us. We engender angry responses and even hatred when we use anger as our main tool. Instead of safety, we create suffering.

Learning to understand anger, learning to communicate assertively, learning to practice emotional intelligence, and learning the skills of stress management — these will enable us to live life more effectively. Certainly they will help us avoid writhing with twisted wrath.

[Next article Anger Words: Ire]

---

wroth. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved August 2, 2009, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wroth

anger, rage, wroth, wrath, fury, anger management, anger management classes

My Private Theodores

Remember the Unabomber?

Ted Kaczynski with his wild hair
and unkempt eyes?
A lone hermit in a down
falling shack surrounded
by pencil stubs gnawed
and papers crumpled,
I imagine, rejected
bits of his manifesto.

It feels like my head is that lush
green mountain in Idaho or Utah or wherever
it was, it feels like my head
is filled with a whole goddam village
of Ted Kaczynskis, madly
scribbling their demands
of how things should be.

And then, when
nobody listens, or
nothing changes, or
doesn't change fast enough, or
they've just plain had it up to here no matter what,

KABOOM!

or sometimes just
a cranky fizzle
that cranks on and on driving everybody else
off that green mountain,
miles and miles away, to
California or Copenhagen, maybe, or
even to the blood red sands of Australia;
and all the dozens of my private Theodores
scribble madly on.

Afterward I wonder,
where is my brother,
who will know my raving,
who will turn me in?

Copyright (c) 2001, John Elder, All Rights Reserved