Don’t get mad, get creative

A guest blog post from Susan Edmiston, co-author of The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger

2010 is shaping up to be the Year of Anger.  In addition to the egregious, destructive expressions of this deadly sin (Mel Gibson’s horrific rant, the Mets’ Francisco Rodriguez’s attack on his father-in-law, and the Tea Party’s rage which threatens to undermine, if not destroy, effective government), we’ve seen a few people harness the emotion in more creative ways.

We’ve written previously about Southwest flight attendant Steven Slater, whose leaving the scene via his plane’s emergency chute made him a national hero.  Now, the blue-eyed soul group, the Gregory Brothers, known for their Auto-Tune the News video series, has taken Alabama native Antoine Dodson’s righteous indignation when an intruder climbed in his apartment window and attempted to rape his sister and turned it into an iTunes Top-50 song. See/hear “The Bed Intruder Song” here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw.

The Cow in the Parking Lot does not condone “Don’t get mad; get even,” but it does approve “Don’t get mad; get effective” (and offers ways to do this) and now celebrates “Don’t get mad; get creative.”