It’s 8am. You’re just sitting down to work and your computer starts making a rattling noise. “Bummer,” you think.

You take a look at the back of it and can’t see anything wrong. But you can’t actually see anything at all so that’s not the best test. You think about removing the side panel to see inside it but you’re too lazy and settle on the idea of gently rocking the computer back and forth.

You jostle it from side to side about 10 times but the sound doesn’t go away. Your blood pressure rises.

“Stupid computer!” you think inside yourself. You jostle it a couple more times – increasingly violently. No dice. The noise persists. You look around. Nobody’s near. So you give the side of the computer a good open-hand whack. Nothing. You whack it again. With more force. Nothing. “If I did actually throw this out the window,” you think, “how many pieces could it possibly break into?”

Computers are a microcosm of things most of us can’t control. When humans can’t control things, we tend to get angry and, unable to think clearly, do irrational things.

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
_Ecclesiastes 7:9

My grandma used to sit on her porch with a fly swatter on her lap. She was ready to use that thing on a dime. It took her 5 minutes to walk to the kitchen but she could swat a fly out of the air in half a second.

Does anger sit in our laps like that – at the ready?

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