X is for Xanthippe

Why can’t you love me like you love that couch?!!! You two are inseparable for hours!!!!! KaBOOM!

I thought you are tired of reading my mind and here you are reading newspaper while my eyebrows sweat watching your every move?!!!  What an ideal partner you are!!!! KaBLAM!

XANTHIPPE is a woman with a bad temper! A quarrelsome woman! You better remember that!

Xanthippe was the wife of Socrates, yes the wise Socrates. But his tongue was no match with his wife — he was beaten in a discussion with her. He surrendered!

You think blahblah was enough? She said to have emptied a chamber pot on Socrates’ head after a quarrel to which he remarked, “After thunder generally falls rain.” Harhar!

You think a bad temper only means a sharp tongue — an explosion? Bad temper is a proud silence too — an implosion. It’s when we practice the silent treatment that even the hot soup gets cold in discomfort.

I realized that Xanthippe is within me for several occasions. Each time I am silent and hold a grudge. Each time I roar in anger.

We have to strive to tame our thoughts and the tongue. We have to because we make the lives of those around us so difficult. So difficult that we want to explode! Again! And again!

It’s not easy. It won’t work by simply refusing the false power in bad temper. We have to accept God’s gift of wisdom and tolerance instead — and  use it.

Yes, use it! What part of USE can’t you understand?

UUUU!

🙂