Relieve Your Anger With a Good Growl Movement

We're wisely advised not to go food shopping when we're hungry, lest we come home with an excess of forbidden fruits and a dearth of healthy "vittles." (How many among us would anticipate more gastronomic delights in tofu than in a t-bone steak?)

Mo' bettah we roam the supermarket with a full belly and a clear recollection of our last visit to the bathroom scale, which sinister device tends to disprove Newton's claim that what goes up must...well, you know the rest, so let's not go there.

It is similarly sound counsel not to write or speak when we're really - I mean REALLY - ticked off about something or someone, or both.

Especially during a business life from which I have happily retired, many have been the angry letters I've written, then "posted" in the circular file after a simmering-down period and/or discussion with a cooler head.

Such uncharacteristic exercises of restraint, I'm sure, kept me out of more than a few courtrooms and feuds, as well as preventing the shrinkage of an already modest circle of friends and friendly colleagues.

However, as to all rules, even those cited above, there are legitimate exceptions - one of which is the efficacy of an occasional dessert treat - even one of decadent magnitude - when trapped in a slough of despond. (Been there/done that!)

Another exception - and the focus of this opusette - is when one falls victim to the Howard Beale Syndrome.

Aside: For the benefit of my younger readers (wow..talk about a shrinking circle!), Howard was the protagonist in a hit movie, some thirty years ago, entitled "Network." Therein, he memorably shrieked, with Howard Dean-like intensity, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Beale, portrayed as a major network anchor, vented his anger to a multi-million-sized audience, thus giving his message the kind of clout unavailable to almost all of us-all. However, one of the side benefits to him is available to us at all times.

That blessing is our constitutionally protected Freedom of Screech, which carries with it the equally blessed relief of a good "growl movement."

Granted, we shouldn't tell our bosses, mothers-in-law or traffic cops that they are horses' asses -even when they truly are, but it's always open season on our elected officials and other public figures.

Further granted, the world may little note nor long remember our small voices in opposition to big wrongdoings and the doers thereof, but you can take this to the bank: Speaking up beats the bejabbers out of suffering in silence.

The mere act of sounding off has great therapeutic value, as is proven every day in gin mills and beauty parlors the world over. Getting it off one's chest is far better than carrying it on one's back, when the "it" is an itch that badly needs scratching or a severely painful bone of contention.

But having a good "growl movement" is more than just an experience of self-gratification.

Taking politicians as just one example (all people in power being substitutable), their license to do bad things depends greatly on an electorate that is either ignorant or apathetic, or both. ("I don't know nothin' and I don't care a rat's nose.")

People who abuse power and/or betray trusts fear one thing above all else - an informed, angry and activated constituency. Thus, when we're "stewing without doing." we perpetuate their dark deeds.

Never doubt for a moment that those with a handle on the throttle of authority also have their fingers on the pulse of public opinion. Note the rise and fall of unpopular TV sitcoms and the inglorious exits of discredited big shots when their cover has been blown.

Know this: The often-heard statement that "I never pay attention to the polls" is incomplete. The unstated balance is: "Neither do I breathe, eat or go potty."

The angry letter you write and/or the e-mail you send and/or the phone call you make to your misbehaving Sinator, Reprehensible or political nabob anywhere from the Wild House to the local Clown Hall, WILL make a difference - albeit a small one - when taken in context with other Howard Beale clones of similar mind.

Such "growl movements" are highly preferable to the extreme discomfort of emotional constipation. (How's that for wringing out a perhaps-indelicate metaphor, folks?)

Bottom line (pun NOT intended, I swear!): Growl movements are healthy, both for you and for the world you live in!