An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
I fundamentally disagree with these types of world-views because I don't consider any emotions to be inherently good or evil. Feeling the full spectrum of human emotions is what healthy, balanced people do.
Anger is no less inherently good or evil or dangerous than love. Love can compel people to do far worse acts of evil than anger.
Starving your "evil wolf" will lead to mental illness.
A far more emotionally mature choice is to use the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to help guide you with dealing with all emotions. Work through your emotions and manage them rather than suppressing them.
Great example and you couldn't be more wrong.
This fat alcoholic is not feeding his evil wolf - he's starving it just like the foolish old Cherokee recommended and using food and booze to hide from his painful emotions.
His depression is the product of suppressing his emotions / "starving the wolf" rather than embracing them and managing them.
Suppressing emotions / "starving the wolf" leads to mental illness.
Evil wolf defined as - "he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” - it is being consumed by all of these things (not just which ever one part you think isn't as bad) that defines the counter part of evil. I think by feeding things like self-pity, arrogance, greed etc you will starve what is good in you. The reverse can be true.
Yes but the list provided by the OP is flawed. Some thing like false pride is inherently wrong because it's false. Pity is another word for compassion and compassion for yourself isn't evil either. Lies isn't an emotion. Ego is another word for self worth and that is healthy.
Ugh... I feel like I'm repeating myself again and again: emotions are too complex to categorize as good and evil, right and wrong.
The premise of this entire post is fundamentally flawed.