Most people know minerals in the form of semiprecious and precious gemstones. Minerals, however, are everywhere, even in the form of clay on the bottom of your shoe. More than 2,500 minerals on the planet make up the rocks that underlie everyone everywhere all the time.
Minerals are both useful and, as evidenced by our attachment to them in form of jewelry, fascinating. To be classified as a mineral, some natural element or combination of elements has to be crystalline, that is, on a molecular level, made of a regular arrangement of atoms. Each mineral has identifiable characteristics, some of which are shared among similar minerals and include the hardness of the mineral and the way it reflects light.
Salt, which is the mineral halite, is a cubic arrangement of sodium and chlorine. Want to see the effect of the crystalline arrangement? Just look through a magnifying glass at some salt from your saltshaker. Fascinating! All those little cubes and broken cubes lying there, and all of them composed of two substances that separately could kill us: Beauty and danger bound together in a neat package useful to melt ice on winter roads and to flavor foods.
What in your life is like a mineral? What is both useful and fascinating? What is both dangerous and useful? How about anger?
Anger seems to underlie many people like the minerals on the planet. As a mechanism for safety in the face of danger, it appears to be helpful. As a mechanism of uncontrolled aggression, it appears to be harmful to both the angry person and to the one who is object of the anger.
So, what is this emotional mineral that appears everywhere over the planet like outcrops of rock? What are its components and how do they fit together? What are the characteristics of this emotional mineral? We should examine it because, as I said, it appears everywhere and everywhen.
We have, all of us, the potential of being angry. We have, all of us, the potential of being angry without being aggressive. We have, all of us, the means to examine our anger whenever it surfaces. We can look at its components: Our predisposition toward it, our emotional nature, our rational or irrational thoughts about it, our desires to act on some statement or event, and our outward manifestations of anger (the things others can observe when we are angry).
If you find yourself a bit angry, see whether or not your can assay your anger mineral. Maybe there’s something useful in it, maybe something harmful to you or to someone else.
Minerals are both useful and, as evidenced by our attachment to them in form of jewelry, fascinating. To be classified as a mineral, some natural element or combination of elements has to be crystalline, that is, on a molecular level, made of a regular arrangement of atoms. Each mineral has identifiable characteristics, some of which are shared among similar minerals and include the hardness of the mineral and the way it reflects light.
Salt, which is the mineral halite, is a cubic arrangement of sodium and chlorine. Want to see the effect of the crystalline arrangement? Just look through a magnifying glass at some salt from your saltshaker. Fascinating! All those little cubes and broken cubes lying there, and all of them composed of two substances that separately could kill us: Beauty and danger bound together in a neat package useful to melt ice on winter roads and to flavor foods.
What in your life is like a mineral? What is both useful and fascinating? What is both dangerous and useful? How about anger?
Anger seems to underlie many people like the minerals on the planet. As a mechanism for safety in the face of danger, it appears to be helpful. As a mechanism of uncontrolled aggression, it appears to be harmful to both the angry person and to the one who is object of the anger.
So, what is this emotional mineral that appears everywhere over the planet like outcrops of rock? What are its components and how do they fit together? What are the characteristics of this emotional mineral? We should examine it because, as I said, it appears everywhere and everywhen.
We have, all of us, the potential of being angry. We have, all of us, the potential of being angry without being aggressive. We have, all of us, the means to examine our anger whenever it surfaces. We can look at its components: Our predisposition toward it, our emotional nature, our rational or irrational thoughts about it, our desires to act on some statement or event, and our outward manifestations of anger (the things others can observe when we are angry).
If you find yourself a bit angry, see whether or not your can assay your anger mineral. Maybe there’s something useful in it, maybe something harmful to you or to someone else.
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