Cary Tennis's suggestions were sound - "So I do hope you will look into these anger management sessions. But you can go far beyond that. You have much to gain by working with your anger. It may be the doorway to a new way of thinking and living" - but did not go deep enough into the issue of why your anger and how you can do something truly effective about it.

There are a whole number of positive things you can do about - and with - your anger.

Let's assume the following is your 'Mission statement' (M): "To learn how to do something very positive with the anger I feel about the way things are in this country - the government AND the people's attitudes". [Feel free to improve that statement so that it more truly reflects you].

Ask yourself the following questions about your Mission:

-- "What, in my opinion, are the THINGS I SHOULD DO to accomplish my Mission M?"

-- "What, in my opinion, are the BARRIERS/ DIFFICULTIES / THREATS that may hinder/prevent me from accomplishing my Mission M?"

[Living as you do in the US - which is a far cry from Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe; for from China, for that matter - you'll ultimately find that the biggest barriers, difficulties and threats hinder/ing/preventing your Mission are from within yourself!]

-- "What, in my opinion, are the WEAKNESSES I have that may hinder/prevent me from accomplishing my Mission M?"

[A huge amount will ultimately hinge on your being able to rise above yourself to overcome your weaknesses].

-- "What, in my opinion, are the STRENGTHS I possess that will help me accomplish my Mission M?"

[You will discover - over time - that you do have huge strengths that you are not using effectively at all!]

-- "What, in my opinion, are the OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE that could help me accomplish my Mission M?"

By the way, these questions are NOT just for thinking about for an hour or so and then forgetting about them for the rest of your life!

If you are serious enough about wanting to achieve your Mission, then you shall have to work on it EACH AND EVERY DAY! Not that you have to spend hours each day on them! You do need to spend anywhere from 10 minutes to half-an-hour, each day (more or less), thinking seriously about your Mission, and WRITING DOWN the responses your mind gives you.

(Turn off the TV, your i-pod and ALL such gizmos that prevent you from connecting to yourself!!!)

If you should do this self-contemplation in the right and proper way, you will definitely come up with a few appropriate responses each day.

Now, what you need to do is to model those responses you get, build up a graphical picture of how each such 'element' you have generated may "contribute to" or "hinder/prevent" accomplishment of your Mission.

[There is a little technology involved here. You will have to learn how to handle what is know as the 'transitivity' of the relationships "contribute to" and "hinder/prevent". Not a major problem - there is a simple free software available that can help you do that.

Unfortunately as these Salon forums are conducted in what I call the 'pure prose mode of discourse', I'm unable to illustrate the kind of graphical models that will develop - those graphical models will show you a very specific action plan that will help you accomplish your Mission. (These graphical models constitute a part of a small extension to our conventional prose, a 'language' - rather a 'communication mode' - that I call 'prose + structural graphics' [p+sg], which is, I have found, ESSENTIAL to create effective action planning on complex issues such as this huge anger that you're feeling. (I have described some applications of p+sg in several other postings of mine).

If you should wish to learn more about the tools I've sketched above that can help you handle your problem effectively, just write to me at gs (underscore) chandy (at) yahoo (dot) com - and I shall be happy to send you further information - along with an invitation where you can download and use (for free) the 'modeling software' described above.

My best wishes to you in your Mission if you should take up the challenge of doing something truly effective about and with it!

-- GSC

The Parsi community of India (Zoroastrians, originally from Iran, settled in India hundreds of years ago) had actually worked out what I feel is THE greenest way of corpse disposal:

Expose the corpse to the sun and wind at a 'body disposal tower', which the Parsis call the "Tower of Silence". There, vultures eat the flesh from the corpses and in a few weeks all that's left is some moldering bones. (I believe, but am not sure about the following, that every few years the crumbling bones that are left behind are collected and disposed of with no environmental hazard at all).

Alas, of late the vultures in India have been dying out because the 'other carrion' they feed on have ingested DDT and other pesticides used for crop dusting to enhance yields. Now, there are too few vultures to take care of the dead Parsi bodies - and those bodies tend to rot for a long time in the Towers of Silence. (For more info, just google for "Parsi body disposal"; "vultures going extinct" - plenty of material available).

(Just to set things clear: I am NOT a Parsi).

-- GSC