Better than caffeine

Something I was thinking about last week is whether anger can ever do good. Most philosophers and practitioners of religion would say no, but it's hard to argue with the short-term results.

Take, for example, #24 -- Kobe Bryant. Last week the man was on a tear about one thing after another: the Lakers' losses, accusations of playing dirty, rumors that he was talking to a college player about going pro with a little help from Nike, &c. &c. (The LA Times called the situation "Kobe gone wild".)

But regardless of what was happening in Kobe's head, here's what happened to Kobe's game: He morphed into a one-man scoring machine the likes of which hadn't been seen since Wilt Chamberlain. As Marc Stein noted in his column on ESPN.com:

The Los Angeles Lakes have cemented their strategy for the rest of their season.

Pray for rage.

Find a way, in other words, to keep the game's greatest singular talent flat-out fuming.

Kobe has been openly angry for about a week....

The real volume, though, is in the point totals.

Sixty-five against Portland.

Fifty against Minnesota.

Sixty more Thursday night in a 121-119 triumph over the hapless Memphis Grizzlies.

I haven't seen a guy play this well when he's mad since John McEnroe went 82-3 in the 1984 tennis season.

I guess you could ask questions like What's this doing to Kobe's teammates' morale? or Is this a long-term solution? or even Is Kobe any happier? But the answers seem irrelevant.

From personal experience, I know nothing motivates you like a burst of anger. I mean, you'll go bats**t and supernova for a while -- and afterward you'll be tired and possibly regret some of the things you did like p**s people off -- but in the short-term you'll definitely get s**t done.

The real problem with anger is that it's hard to control and nearly impossible to direct. But somewhere in the course of evolution, or the Mind of God, or the fate of the stars, we picked up the ability to get angry, so why not use it once in a while? As if drinking water that's been passed through the grinds of the roasted seed from a cherry-like plant originally from Ethiopia is any more natural! Let's not forget the root of the word "organic" is "organ" and, really, what could be more organic than using the juice your own adrenals pump out?