These angry days, try some breathing
Anger is abroad in the land. Former President Donald Trump sows hate for libs, and libs hate Trump. We are all angry. I used to watch Morning Joe on MSNBC. But recently it came to me that the show should be called “Morning Trump.” He was omnipresent; he might as well have had a dressing room. Joe Scarborough wouldn’t have a show without him.
A typical Morning Joe segment would be introduced with some graphic image of Trump. Shouting Trump, snarling Trump, smirking Trump or that Trump with the Cheerios mouth, oh-so-round and laughable. But Devil-Trump was always present, and Joe would be ranting about him, angering up our blood, us libs. Cut to commercial, usually a drug to placate our anger, antidepressants a favorite. But any drug would do. Does Trump make your skin crawl? Here’s a drug for psoriasis. TV news as a commercial sales-aid. Nothing new.
I was not immune. I could hate along with the best. But I am old, with miscellaneous ailments, some serious, cancer in remission; I knew that anger was not good for my body or my soul. I just didn’t know how to change. Until I fell and broke my hip, lessons awaiting. A repair from Dr. Isaac Kim, a great orthopedic surgeon at Christus St. Vincent Medical Center, and a stay at the compassionately curative Inpatient Rehab
Center at Christus. Oh, their skill. Oh, their patience. Oh, my anger, a pervasive condition even without Joe and “Morning Trump,” just being 85 maybe, roads not taken.
One day at the rehab center, I had an anxiety attack; the Ativan I was prescribed did not help. The rehab center is holistic, and the good people of the center saw that it was old, angry, anxious me that also needed rehab, along with my femur and its trochanter. Dr. Kim had said to think of the hip repair as rebar. Yes, but what about my angry soul? Was there rebar for it? There have been many days recently when I needed soul repair, given these times and the extent of my ancient anger. A healer at the rehab center suggested breathing. Yes, I would like that, I said. For quite a bit longer; I’m just figuring out some stuff. No, mindful breathing she said, for the anger and anxiety.
Rejecting the voice that said,
“woo-woo, woo-woo,” I learned a breathing technique. No more vodka, no more marijuana — they never really helped anyway. Just sitting quietly, mouth closed (something new for me) breathing through my old nose. Just try five minutes she said. And I did, and I am. It’s helping: anxiety and anger diminishing. But that’s just old me. No one else should try it. Trump needs our anger. So does Joe.