Hate.
It’s so ugly.
I hated someone once for a few minutes. It took control of me and filled me with such intense vile emotions.
Hate is an incredibly powerful emotion, and that scared me. In an instant I could see how people could do unimaginable things from that space if they remained in it. It is all consuming and makes you crazy as it takes the drivers seat, putting you into attack mode removing all traces of empathy.
My attack consisted of flipping the bird… with both hands and a nasty scowl on my face, which is completely out of character for me. I moved past it quickly, but I will never forget that feeling.
I’ve thought about it many times since then. What was at the root of that explosive surge of ugly emotion?
It happened at a moment when I was feeling deeply threatened by this person. If I really analyze how I felt, the truth was I hated what they were doing and had already done…not the actual person inside.
It was the easy way out. Much more difficult to find the love in that situation.
Martin Luther King Jr. — “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
I did some quick research on google and found a few articles that said feeling threatened is the root of hate thus confirming my self analysis.
I have been on the other side of hate also…there are people who have said they hate me.
Feeling threatened and hating seems felt so real in the moment, and so unnecessary and extreme when I was away from it.
What does a perfect person look like?
What does a person look like who should be hated?
What does a person who hates look like?
“When our thoughts – which bring actions – are filled with hate against anyone, Negro or White, we are in a living hell. That’s as real as hell will ever be. ” – George Washington Carver.
I remember hearing Oprah say she was angry with someone, and then drove past them on the street one day and they were laughing and happy…she remembered thinking, “how can they be happy?” And realized the only one her anger was affecting was herself.
I’m pretty sure hate works in the same way.
It’s ugly, and when we are filled with it we are ugly.