Anger is loud and outwardly active which seems to have an immediate effect on others. The awful effects of anger does not, despite outward appearances, render it stronger than kindness.

It only takes a bit of observation to see that even if angry people seem to win and have gained all of the toys life has to offer their faces are often ravaged and devoid of any peace or true happiness. Doctors keep many of them alive for a long time but it is often only with the help of medications and various surgical procedures because while they are busy accumulating power, things and living with the analgesic action anger has on their emotional pain their bodies, without the intervention of modern medicine, are rotting.

We will not observe the same in the faces or bodies of people who know that kindness is actually the stronger force.  A kind person’s face will often show the signs of suffering turned into compassion. The faces of kind people will exhibit the peace that comes from not living a life filled with animosity towards their fellow human beings. There will be no fear etched on their faces because they do not live a life believing that everyone wants to take something from them or prevent them from possessing what they believe is theirs by entitlement.  Kind people, of course, suffer but they know that we all suffer and, while their’s might be unique to their circumstances, in the end it is a shared suffering on this journey of life.  This alone makes it easier for compassion to be present in their lives. They are not afraid to smile at a stranger, stand up for the less fortunate or cry for the suffering of others. Angry people are too afraid to exhibit kindness because it will open their own hearts to buried emotion and they would rather destroy someone else than to face their own emotions.

Kindness does not make anyone weaker. It does not, despite the current belief, mean we have move to the shadows and let the angry bullies dominate.  Kindness in adversity is strong and, just like a forest ravaged by an angry fire, in the end the seeds of kindness will renew the soil which appears to have no life. Even if at this time it appears that kindness is a losing strategy it is important to remind ourselves that if we are strong enough to open our hearts to kindness we are strong enough to stand up to anger because in the final analysis anger is an act of emotional fear.  It is a good time to bring the truth of kindness out of the shadows and stand strong against the anger of weakness.