The Deadliest Sin - addendum - Updated

My post the other day about rage and anger came from a talk on the phone I'd had earlier with my Uncle Joe, who lives in Virginia.

I asked Joe if he remembered my uncle Huburt Sammons, who disappeared over the Atlantic in a B-24 back in May 1944, and found out a whole lot I didn't know.

I hadn't known that Huburt, who stood 6 feet tall and weighed about 170 pounds, was a skilled boxer who'd intended fighting professionally until one night down in Miami he'd been matched against an opponent who beat the stuffing from between his ears.

So much for Uncle Huburt's prize-fighting career.

Then Joe went on to say that while Huburt was a great, fun guy to be around ... once he was in a bar and had had a drink or two, Huburt started looking for somebody, and the bigger the better, to fight. And I got the impression that except for that one night in Miami, Huburt didn't know much about losing.

(Joe told another story that doesn't apply here, about another male relative (whose name I won't mention) who'd been in the Constabulary in Germany following World War II. One night this relative was walking home over a bridge and ran into another group of guys going in the opposite direction ... one of whom became beligerent.

(My father threw the loudmouth off the bridge [over Cass Street, in Tampa] ... somehow I'd never heard that story before talking to Uncle Joe the other night.)

I don't know if there's either genetic or environmental components to anger, but I do know it doesn't matter.

World-class boxers don't go looking for fights in bars; neither do Formula 1 drivers go racing through the streets to impress their friends or pick-up girls.

Men at a world-class skill level don't have to impress anybody with their talents or ability: they already know how good they are from being measured and winning against equal opponents, and realized a long time ago they're not proving anything by going up against somebody who's incapable physically, intellectually or emotionally of defending themselves.

Only bullies with a need to respond to unresolved issues about themselves use anger to take on weaker opponents ... because nine times out of 10 bullies are born from being bullied and feeling helpless, and angry, about themselves.