Anger

A wise person once told me that all anger finds its roots in fear... (I may have also heard this from Star Wars - Yoda - but that is another story).

The more I think about this, the more I agree with it. Fear is an irrational emotion, much like anger. Fear debilitates an individual, much like anger. Fear is based in love... much like anger.

Love?

When I think of fear, I think of what causes my fear... A person can be afraid of many things, spiders, heights, other people, death, clowns and many more. All of these fears are intrinsically rooted in a few basic fears, fearing loss of life, fearing loss of control, fearing pain and harm and fearing loss of love.

These basic fears (and I am sure there are others I cannot think of right now) are the roots of all specific fears. One fears spiders and snakes because evolutionarily speaking these creatures posed a threat to human life due to their potentially venomous nature. One fears heights, the unknown and other people because these pose situations where control is no longer within the grasp of the one experiencing the fear. People fear coming to the Dentist because they fear the pain that they mentally believe they will experience during their visits. People fear harm to those they love because they don't wish to lose the bonds that they have created with others.

All of these basic fears tie back to love. We fear the loss of life because we have come to love living. Life has become important to us because it is all we know (in this way, this fear falls into the category of control). While we are alive, we have control over our destinies, after death... who knows?

Fear of losing control ties into our love for our intellect. We are all vain to some extent, because we can be. We have the ability to chose any path we wish over the course of our lives. Our ability to manipulate our surroundings is unparalleled... however, when we are shown the limits of our intellect, this great gift that is ours... we become uncomfortable, we become defensive, we become afraid.

Fear of pain and harm once again ties back to our concept of control, but harm is something that truly terrifies many people. Most people if asked would rather die a quick painless death then live in pain for a prolonged period of time. This fear of pain is a dramatic one for us because it links to two things we love. Our intellects and our lives. Pain debilitates a person, it drives a person crazy, it is a subjective feeling that each of us experiences differently, because our minds are the source of pain. Another source of pain, emotional pain is even more obviously linked to love. We feel pain because we love, we love because we feel pain.

Fear of losing love is perhaps the most obvious fear to link to love. When a mother refuses to let her child out of her sight for a moment... it is because she is scared of harm befalling the one she loves. When a child insists on sleeping with their blanket every night, a part of the reason is because they are frightened that when they wake up, the blanket will no longer be there.

These basic fears are closely tied to anger. When a person gets angry, it is almost always a direct response to a fear being realized. When a couple argues, it is often because one feels threatened by something the other said. When a father yells at his child for arriving home late, it is usually because he was worried that they would not get home safely. When a child yells at their parents, it is often because the child wishes to have more autonomy, more control over their lives and their affairs.

At the end of the day, anger, fear - these negative emotions... are all rooted in a positive emotion, in love.

We would not feel angry or afraid if we did not love, if we did not cherish our lives, the people within our lives, the material possessions we have, our intellects and our souls.

Maybe that's how the universe works? Maybe there exists a God who is completely good (positive), however, when looked at in a certain manner, it can be viewed as a negative.

Love, the strongest of emotions, leads to bad and good, yet, love itself is good.
God is good, yet God created a world and a universe with a great deal of bad within it... it's all in the angle with which one looks at it.
So, what's your angle?

Trust

How do you know you can trust someone?

The question is more an oxymoron than most realize... Once you know, it isn't trust, it is knowledge.

Trust is a blessing, we trust others who are close to us, we trust others who are distant from us with regards to ideology, morality, status and location. However, the important thing is that we are able to trust others.

This concept of trust relates to another concept... altruism. The ability to help another, even if that action does not benefit one and may in fact cause harm. With very few exceptions in nature, human beings are amongst the only creatures that actually can act altruistically. This means that we can do something completely selfless, we can go so far as to sacrifice our own lives for a stranger if we choose to do so.

Why?

Because we love others? That no doubt plays a role, however I feel that trust is another key component. We can trust... we have been given this gift of being able to trust and to keep our trusts, to keep our promises and to act in a selfless manner to further these trusts.

How do you know you can trust me? You don't, you have to believe that you can... and that belief has another synonym... faith.

No one can prove that God exists, no one can disprove God's existence (or state of non-existence if you subscribe to the theory of double-negation). However, one can have faith, one can trust that no matter what happens, there will be someone or something out there to hold your hand.

In the Holy Qur'an it is written that those who believe should keep their trusts... I know that I have violated many trusts in my life, however I pray that I can keep praying, and that you can too.