I have missed the last few days, far too much has been going on with the Renaissance festival to write every day, and yesterday I will be honest I was so warn out, I just did not take the time to write.
The Ren Faire was a blast, I had so much fun in Character, between announcing the Joust, doing knightings, talking to people about Henry VIII, and on Saturday getting some really fun pictures in costume as well as meeting a lot of new people, spending time with some old friends I do not spend enough time with, it was a great weekend. Yes, it was hot in my costume, but it was worth every minute being too warm knowing just how well it was going. between the guild, the Wolf Hounds, the Jousters, the Coffin maker, the musicians, it was a great weekend and a much needed distraction from the job search with some great people.
On Thursday I was going down to set up for the festival and got a call from Ogden regional, they wanted to interview me for a job and they called me again today to set it up for tomorrow. Hopefully it is only a sign of good things to come. Sometimes you have to do what you can and let things unfold as they will.
Today I want to talk to you about anger.
There is a story about a Samurai who is sent by his master to find a man and cut him down for a crime that he had committed. When he found the man he told him why he was there, and the man spit in his face. At that moment the Samurai stopped and walked away as he knew that he could not finish his job. If he had done so at that moment it would be out of anger not his duty to his lord so he walked away. Be as that Samurai. If you are angry and upset, do not do things that you may regret later. Do the right things because they are the right things to do.
Last week for a few days I was depressed and angry about the University. Some of that came as ways I could "get them back for what they did to me." I racked my mind, thinking of things, ways I could show them, ways I could prove to them that they had made a mistake, ways I could get them back for the wrong I felt had been done to me but all it was was revenge. I could write bad reviews, I could do a thousand or more things to harm the jobs of the people who had let me go, but at the end of the day, that is not and cannot be my place. There is a beauty to karma in that it works itself, at the end of the day things that are coming will come.
Anger will eat you up from the inside, and more often than not the consequences will not come out as you plan or think it will. Revenge is never without consequences, and it will never make things right. Revenge comes out of anger and feeling that somehow the wrong done to you will be made better if the person who did it has a similar thing happen to them. Lets say someone kills your brother, does it make it better if you kill theirs? At the end of the day, you have 2 dead people but no one is made happy by the loss they suffer knowing that the other had to have the same thing done to them. Anger and frustration does not solve problems. Anger will come but that does not mean you have to let it rule you. You are always at choice about your actions. If someone makes you mad, it does not mean you have to hit them, you are in choice for the way you respond.
You will get angry sometimes, but do not forget that you are in control of your actions. Anger will come and sometimes will prove a great motivator to get things done, but you are in control of the way you act from it. Be as the Samurai, act as is your duty, but when it becomes something else remove yourself from the situation. Your motivation matters, know that some things will make you mad, but you alone are responsible for the way you act those emotions out.
You are not even born yet and I love you already kiddo.
-Dad
