Essay: On the other hand

Anger is a powerful physiological experience — as I've been experiencing.

Adrenaline, I've been telling myself, is there for a reason — to propel fight or flight. As always, the conundrum is this: What does one do with the instinctive energy of fight or flight in a supposedly civilized world?

In a fresh bout of sleeplessness which I fully understand — kept awake by adrenaline — I devise one scenario after another. Some for revenge. Some for justice. Some for escape. Some for vindication.

Whatever, my body is sending me an insistent message — DO SOMETHING.

Interesting how the body is programmed for adaptation. It knows when it is threatened, attacked and insulted. It knows what to do. Flood the system with energy. And here I am, rooting around in a mucky pen of passive aggression, bullies and a distorted template of anachronistic noblesse oblige.

Move, move, my body says. I'm appreciative that my body has its ancient human responses. I just have to figure out how to make it work for me. Could righteous wrath be the fountain of youth?