Chapter 5 Review: Interview Your Anger

This chapter talks about finding the root of our anger, and not taking it out on the people we love. We need to figure out what our anger is really about, or we will continue to harm others. Johnson talks about a fight she had with her husband, and how her anger was really directed at her mother. This led her on a journey of forgiveness that resulted in an actual friendship with her mother. It wasn't easy, but once she realized the real reason she was angry, she could start to heal.
On a personal note, I have had an experience like this. The first year that I moved to Virginia was a busy one for me. My husband and I had just gotten married, we bought a house, and I started a new, high-stress job. One evening, my husband brought home dinner from Sheetz. (What can I say, it's a tradition from our college days!) Anyway, he ordered my breakfast sandwich with bacon. Now he knows that bacon usually makes me sick, but he intended on taking it off my sandwich and putting it on his, since it is included in the cost of the sandwich. Well, you would have thought that World War III had just begun by the way I reacted to finding this unappetizing meat on the sandwich that my stomach had been rumbling for! I threw the sandwich on the floor, spewed some choice words at my husband, and then ran upstairs and slammed the bedroom door, collapsing into tears on the bed. All over a sandwich, right?! WRONG. I knew deep down that my real anger was my frustration with my new job, and a constant, nagging feeling that I had chosen the wrong career path. I had no one to be angry with but myself. I felt like I was compromising my own needs to keep up the lie that I was happy with my profession, because I was too embarrassed to admit that I had made the wrong choice. Thankfully, my husband was able to shrug off my outburst, even after I finished the entire performance by driving to Sheetz and buying myself the sandwich I REALLY wanted. (Hmmm...too bad I couldn't order a new career path.) Five years later, my husband and I now laugh at that memory, especially when we are at a restaurant and the waitress asks me if I would like bacon with my eggs. (Jeff usually then mocks me by saying in his best wifey impression: "I told you, I didn't want bacon!" The waitress looks at us like we're nuts, but it's hilarious, if only to us.) The only way I could let go of the anger was to forgive myself for making the wrong career choice, and quit my job. I have since found a career that makes me happy. The funny thing is, it took me reading the chapter of this book to truly understand what I was going through back then!
Ok, now I shared my personal story! I want to hear what other people thought of the chapter, and how it might relate to their lives! (Hopefully your experiences don't include flying breakfast sandwiches!)