Quote Wall: Erling Kagge

In my journal I jot down a handful of quotes that have taught me something, or that I hope to learn from.

Here's one:

While we were preparing to go to the North Pole in 1990, we spent a few weeks testing our gear in Iqaluit, a small town in the north-east, in the Canadian Arctic.

It was here that I learned about a valuable Inuit tradition. If you are so angry that you can hardly control your feelings, you are asked to leave your home and to walk in a straight line through the landscape outside until your anger has left you. You then mark the point at which your anger is released with a stick in the snow. In this way, the length, or the strength, of one's rage is measured. The most sensible thing that you can do if you are angry—a condition where our reptilian brain rules our decisions—is to walk for a while away from the object of your anger.

—from Walking: One Step at a Time

I still don't really know how to process or even fully feel anger, so I think there's some necessary work for me before trying to walk away from my anger...? But when I'm ready for that, I might give it a try and see how it feels.