I’ve arrived at a crossroad where I am no longer an observer and subject in some gone-very-wrong-experiment. But, I am now a free agent in classroom that is our world.

The classroom has ‘teachers,’ in great variety. Perhaps no longer what we consider teachers in an old school paradigm. But, every person teaches us something.

Fools teach us the value of speech. One may speak incessantly and contribute nothing at all of any value to our lives.

Fools by nature must be made sport of. They boast, wildly, accuse, slander, and mock about what they know nothing of. They invite humiliation, they attract it because of their idiotic behavior.

Human history is a classroom. The heroic and not so heroic voices of ancient times speak volumes. We can see our best selves (or try to see) in our heroes. And, emulate them. In history’s not-so-celebrated or villainous creatures we can also learn about ourselves.

I am trying to distinguish between what is hate that leads to a kind of madness and destruction, unhinged, and burning like a wildfire. And anger, which one has built inside them, a kind of defense mechanism to protect us from physical threats. People require aggression to defend against abuse or threats to our physical persons.

Maybe aggression and anger are cousins and not quite the same thing. Aggression may just be biological life force, in a general sense. That does not require definition or excuse at this juncture. One exists, how can one be blamed for being born into the world? That is the case with all human beings.

This is why I believe hate to be of a deeper origin than anger. It’s dark, diabolical.

Hate wants to eradicate the existence of something. It goes beyond the old school idea of every person being sovereign. We each possess a right to exist- since that happened rather beyond our control.

Natural anger or aggression which is also part of our being (and therefore allowed to exist) is subverted or usurped when hate emerges. When eradicating human beings is its object, then natural anger has become twisted into something otherworldly.

We know hate then, is from another dimension – inside us, around us, because we can’t measure it with a ruler. It’s not a physical thing – part of our material world.

If our natural desire for safety in the face of physical danger is subverted and usurped and turns into something unnatural (wanting to end human beings’ lives) then there must exist a Subverter, a Usurper.

That is why Jesus teaches us to forgive even when we feel angry. This doesn’t mean our natural right to exist, or be free from physical harm is not also true. It just means if we don’t forgive we can become part of the dark underworld which is destroying our nation right now. Then, we destroy ourselves.

Class dismissed.