“The anger of a fool becomes readily apparent, but the prudent person overlooks an insult” (PV 12:16)
We just arrived at Istanbul airport. There was a turkish family: a man, his wife and two little children. The man blocked the door of the airport bus with a lot of luggage. An old man and his wife ( they looked like foreigners, maybe Americans) wanted to enter. He kindly asked the younger man to make some space for him to enter in. That was all he said…
Suddenly, the young man became very angry and started shouting and abusing the old man with very rude and vulgar language. Everybody around witnessed the scene including us. It was very shameful to see this young man screaming insults on the old man. In any culture that is wrong. but to everybody’s surprise, the old man and his wife kept quiet and did not respond to the provocation. Finally, we arrived at the airport and all came down from the bus.
i was sorry for the wife of the hot tempered man. An angry man is always a fool. I was happy for the old couple to show so much restrain and godly wisdom in a situation that could have ended in violence.
Are you an angry fool? Or are you a wise calm peacemaker? The difference is clear!
Green Pastures 