In Star Wars, Episode 2, Anakin stands at a work bench fiddling with some electronic device he's trying to fix. He's angry, unhappy and tense. Padme enters and asks him about his state of mind. He throws the object he's working on at the wall. He turns to Padme and tells her he slaughtered an entire village of people, children and women included, because he was angry. Padme sits down with him, looks at him with wide-eyed compassion and says, "To be angry is to be human." What?!!! Certainly there comes a time in just about every experience when you need to move on. You've analyzed, repaired, fixed, altered, or whatever as much as you can. Anakin's initial confession is not that time.
Sometimes all you can do is be compassionate. However, if I had been listening to Anakin's confession, my first call would have been to the police. "Like, hey, we got a wacko renegade here! Come pick him up" A better response to Anakin would be, "Dude, you need a course in anger management! And some serious therapy!" In this case, moving on is not really called for. Moving on is for when you stub your toe or your uncle dies or maybe a flood takes away your house. Think how interesting it might be around here if those who slaughtered villages were told, "To be angry is to be human." Anyone feel this is an appropriate response to Usama Bin Laden? Exactly.
I suppose these comments were brought on by my "Rise, Lord Vader" Star Wars, Episode 3, desktop. Something about the evil in those non-eyes and that clenching, throat-closing grasping hand brought me back to a moment in the theater. At other times I see poor gasping Padme lying pregnant on the ground as little Anakin has an angry moment. What was he thinking? I suppose he wasn't.
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