Anger, to achieve its ultimate objective, must be controlled long enough to grow into a hidden, but unquenchable, lust for retributive power—absolute domination. That is the point at which pure anger is unleashed in the form of volcanic rage, enveloping everyone and everything around it. Pure anger—volcanic rage—seldom displays itself, simply because it is such a rarity. When it does, though, it spreads like an infectious disease. Civil wars erupt when populations that embrace powerful competing philosophies are encouraged to forcefully reject opportunities for reconciliation. Lethal anger becomes an appealing state of mind, the consequences be damned.
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Pundits talk about ‘populist rage’ as a way to trivialize the anger and fear coursing through the middle class.
~ Elizabeth Warren ~
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I wonder whether the very last cigarette I smoked—21 years ago—is the one that triggered my lung cancer. Or, perhaps, it was one I smoked one year or ten years earlier. There’s no way to know, of course. It’s safe to assume, though, that somewhere along the line I smoked a cigarette that initiated the collective damage that spurred my body’s response to those years of smoking. Even after years of reading and hearing warnings about the dangers of smoking, I kept at it. Evidence of my stubborn idiocy. Some mistakes cannot be undone. Every day, I am reminded that I could have rejected cigarettes before smoking became habitual or before I developed an addiction to nicotine. Or I could simply have stopped smoking long before I did. Regret is not a useful emotion with regard to smoking.
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Here it is, almost noon, and the woodpecker is back at it…attempting to find bugs hidden in a tree—and take the tree down in the process. As I look up at the trees outside my windows, I see no birds. But I notice that leaves have grown significantly since yesterday, as if the world is plodding along as usual. Mother Nature seems unmoved by the global political and social upheavals taking place in response to a dangerous cabal of power-hungry demons. Perhaps Mother Nature knows something I don’t; maybe she knows those monsters will fall victim to winds causing heavy tree limbs to pin the beasts to the ground. Today is not the first time I’ve wondered whether Mother Nature and I share similar feelings about the members of the cabal(s). If I were a tree limb, I would not be blamed for crushing the monsters. I suppose I would be accused of having motives that led to their demise. Yet we assume trees are not moved by motives. But do we question whether the winds that move tree limbs have motives? I suppose it’s best to assume tree limbs and the winds that move them are not sinister. I wish the same assumption would be made about me. The trees are swaying in the wind, as if reacting to my words. They know more than we think.
Bev, yes, I know NSCLC can happen to anyone. But as you say, there are many unknowns. I suspect cigarette smoking and breathing in chemical pollutants and particulates all contribute. I wish, though, I had never started smoking…maybe that bad habit was the addition that “did it” to me.
I hope you do know that NSCLC can happen to anyone. Don was a never smoker and many people with NSCLC are never smokers. There are multiple causes – genetics, exposure to various fine particulates, radon gas, asbestos, and so on. The age of people getting NSCLC – especially younger people – is dropping lower and lower. A webinar that I listened to a few years ago said they are seeing it in never-smoker teenagers – young athletes, etc.. Don’s uncle was a farmer who died from lung cancer in the 1960s – probably at about Don’s age or a little younger. He was a never smoker. Back then, they weren’t typing cancers, so we will never know if it was NSCLC, but from the family’s account, it sounds very likely. SCLC is considered more the “smoker’s cancer”. Anyhow, I know there’s probably not much point in me saying that you should not try to connect past smoking with your cancer, but just keep it in mind that there are a lot of unknowns about it — and why it is becoming so prevalent. Personally, I suspect a lot of it is connected to exposure to chemicals and certain particulates in the air — and that does seem to be an accepted theory and probable reason for the increase in our times.