When you see a sorrowful person, you console. And nothing can be more sorrowful than a mother losing her child. But what if that sorrow reaches the zenith and then gradually transforms into anger, hatred or even violence? Unthinkable? Not so. The Chinese have a saying: 由悲转怒，怒而生恨. Sorrow becomes anger, anger becomes hatred. You can call it an extreme yin to yang transformation, but toothfully, you won’t be too keen to see this phenomenon happening before your eyes.
When you suffer a loss, the first thing you feel is usually sadness. What happens when you’ve stopped crying? Some people just move on, especially if they recognise that either nobody is to blame to the victim is not blameless. Others start to play the blame game on “convenient targets”. Emotionally drained one moment (or so it seemed), the blamer is suddenly revitalised and unleashes anger on a perceived perpetrator. This rapid transformation can be scary, perplexing and frustrating at the same time. If we can’t erase our sympathy quickly enough, we may be at a loss as to how to react to this sudden change in temperament.
