Despite all the warnings against doing so, I went to bed angry the other night.

I was mad that cancer had taken the life of a good friend. I was mad at a self-serving state legislature that is pandering to special, extreme interests rather than improving the lives of Mountain State residents. I was mad that years of previous hard work had been torn apart by people who care more about touting their own importance than about doing the right thing. I was even mad that I had spent the day fighting with my work computer, which was eventually diagnosed with having either a bad virus or a bad hard drive.

Most of all, I was mad that not one of those situations was within my control.

And so, I lay awake thinking that, since I couldn’t change the random nature of life or the priorities of other people, I could at expose the selfish nature and behavior of others.

But no matter what scenario I imagined, I was never satisfied.

My friend would still be dead. Constituents would still vote against their own self interest and politicians would still prey upon emotional rather than rational voters. All of my hard work would still lie in ruins at the hands of people who never really tried to understand my efforts, and my computer would still be on a shelf waiting for repair.

And I would still be angry.

My mood hadn’t improved by the time I arrived at work the next morning.

Knowing that I had to put my anger aside, I spent the first few minutes in my office repeating one of my favorite quotes, “Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

Saying those words to myself wasn’t sufficient, so I started sharing them with others.

Then something miraculous happened.

The people with whom I shared that quote not only empathized with me, they also shared their own anger.

In doing so, we talked about our values and about not feeling valued. We talked about how difficult people are often doing their best and just don’t know or have the skills to do better. We talked about our own successes and all that we hope to achieve in the future.

And when we spoke, we didn’t use flowery language that made us sound noble. We spoke from the heart with words that are best left behind closed doors (they were) but are sometimes the best way to describe our feelings.

I hadn’t had a complete attitude adjustment by the end of the day, but I did gain something important: perspective.

No one goes through life untouched by anger, and pretending we are above it is ridiculous. Instead, if we share it in the right way with the right people, we can learn more from anger than we ever could from happiness.

With that said, I’m hoping to be much less studious in the next few weeks.

I can only take so much anger management.