Slow To Anger ~ by Billy J Barnard
If you keep pushing that button, I’m eventually going to get angry.
I can remember having a terrible temper at a very young age.
I guess I was around seven years old, the first time I noticed how bad it was.
I was trying to fix the latch on a chicken coop.
I just couldn’t figure it out. So I lost my temper.
I said some pretty terrible things, out loud, alone.
Then I thought to myself, “This is not normal.”
Why can’t anger come on more slowly, like hunger?
Your stomach growls, the first warning sign.
Then maybe you get a headache from low blood sugar.
With hunger, at least you know what it is, and can plan ahead.
Why can’t anger be more like that?
There were other instances as the years went by.
Eventually I was able to push the anger down.
Just like a good Irish boy.
Hold it all in, every emotion, just to eventually let it out.
Sometimes not very appropriate, that emotion.
Much stronger than it should have been.
I mean it was just a little fly, after all
Have you ever been lost? I mean really lost?
I used to get so angry when I got lost.
Most of the time, I was driving a car.
Dangerous thing to be angry in a car.
“Where is it?”, I would yell.
“Hey, that guy just cut me off!”
As I grew older I began to develop more appropriate coping skills.
Now, If I can’t figure it out, I breathe deeply, and open the instruction manual.
Now, If I get lost, I tell myself that maybe God wants me to see something on this road.
So I open my eyes and pay more attention to the world around me.
And, eventually, I find my way again.
But, hey, wasn’t that clown, riding that spotted horse something?
Still, If you keep pushing that button, I’m eventually going to get angry.
Do you hear me Donald Trump?
Journalistic Writing
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Lol!
The ending was great, I know my father would have agree with you on the Trump thing. This works as a good personal essay. In my advanced expository class we did a lot of these. To make it even better I would start off immediatedly with an instance where you got angry, this will usher the reader instantly into your story. Other than that I think it was a really cool short story.
I see what you mean. It will read better. I’m going to rearrange a few paragraphs. Let me know what you think.
Such a wonderful piece about anger (temper) and learning to control it, I think we all at times have trouble with control. Thanks for sharing, enjoyed reading.