A few years ago, a (now former) friend was going through a bad divorce. He showed up for work one day after fighting with his wife so overwrought with anger he couldn't focus enough to do his job.

"Hit me" I said.

He was stunned. "I know that look. You want to hit something" I said. "You're so mad you can't think straight, and I need you to think today. Hit me, get it out of your system."

He wound up and hit me as hard as he could.

"Hit me again" I said, knowing he was still too enraged to think straight. He hauled off and hit me again as hard as he could. Then he broke down and bawled in my arms.

And then we got to work.

There are a lot of valid reasons to be angry right now. The fire hydrant of grief and anxiety that is the past few years shows no signs of letting up. On a macro and micro scale, the amount of unprocessed emotion coursing through us all right now could light Las Vegas for a year.

You've gotta find a way to mitigate this.

Holding onto the anger will wreck your endocrine system. It will derail your ability for rational thought, something the world desperately needs right now.

Letting anger direct the course of your words (spoken or written) and actions may set off a cataclysmic sequence of events in your life, not easily recovered from.

How do I know? I'm a Black man in America.

This is not license to take out your anger on another living soul. The abuse hotlines are soaring right now. As a domestic abuse survivor I can't imagine what it would be like to be sheltered in place with that person.

What this is, is an opportunity.

Sit with yourself. Listen to your anger. Acknowledge it, recognize it, experience it.

Then hone it to a razor's edge and redirect it.

Your feelings are valid. Anger is a great resource, provided you're not taking it out on anyone, because feelings are energy.

Thermodynamically speaking, If energy leaves a system, it's negative. If work is done on the system, it's positive.

You've got some time on your hands. Figure out how you're going to process your anger. Then come find me.

We've got work to do.