“Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” - Bruce Banner (AKA - The Incredible Hulk)

I remember watching the show the Incredible Hulk as a child. The above line was my favorite line. Watching Bill Bixby play the role of Bruce Banner trying not to get angry was so relatable to me. But in episode after episode Brice found it impossible to contain his anger. He tried to avoid conflict that might result in anger, but the conflict just kept finding him out. People just kept crossing his boundaries. He tried to hold it all back, but he just could not do it. Finally, Bruce Banner, after trying with all of his might, would turn toward the camera with his green eyes and angsty face. This was the point of no return. We knew his shirt was about to rip as his muscles grew too big for his clothes. We knew his skin would turn green. We knew it was not longer Bill Bixby playing the role of Brice Banner, but Lou Ferrigno playing the role of the Incredible Hulk.

I related to the hulk as a kid. Not because I was angry all the time, but more so with everything that came before he “hulked out.” I was a shy, quiet, and very nice kid. I wasn’t angry. Well, I didn’t express anger that is. I was angry. But I learned a super power. My super power was not turning into the hulk; instead, my super power was diverting anger from expression into containment. I learned to take anger and move it into a place where it couldn’t hurt anyone. Well, until…

In the next few blog posts I will share what I have learned of anger in 5 decades. I have learned about anger from my own experiences, from observations of anger in others, and from the anger I read about in Christian scriptures.

One of the reasons I am writing about anger has to do with the sense that in the past decade or so, we have as a culture experienced more of our own anger, experienced more of each other’s anger, and had many more ways to express our own anger in public and be witness to other people expressing their anger in public. I hope to explore ways to address anger in healthy ways.