My dad told me, when I was a boy, "There is nothing you can do to change or correct the past. You just have to make sure that you do not continue the same bad things in the future. You must move on."

This was something I remembered to this day. My family and friends always wondered why I never became angry. I never became angry, because things said and done in anger really cut deep and taking them back cannot ever happen. I learned this as a child from my father. He never got angry either and he told a story that brought it all home to me.

As a young man, my dad lived next door to a farm. One day a large branch from a tree near the barn fell and killed two of the farmer's prize pigs. The farmer got so angry; he got out his crosscut saw to cut down the tree.

The tree was old and dying, but still provided shade for the pigs and other livestock in the barnyard. As he cut the tree, he did not watch how he did it, because of his anger. He forgot to notch the tree to direct where it fell. As the tree fell, it twisted and crashed into the barn.

Inside the barn, the falling tree branches and the roof timbers killed three of his milking cows and his prize bull. He stood there and heard the sound of his dying livestock and his anger grew even stronger.

The farmer lost it completely and ended up in the hospital with a severe stroke.

I met the farmer one day. He was the gentlest, kind, old man. He told me about being angry and how it cut deep and how he never really recovered, as he rolled his wheelchair onto his porch.