The Best Friends You Have Poem by David Welch

You say that a good person
should never know anger,
that hatred serves no purpose,
tis a plague upon the world.
I think you are missing
a very salient fact:
anger and hate tell you when
you have to watch your back.
When someone screws you over
is not anger always there
to remind you of the danger,
to avoid future despair?
And when a psycho goes hunting,
is not hate a useful tool
to steel you against a monster
who pays no heed to rules?
If it were not for that
we'd all be easy prey,
are not anger and hate the methods
that keep these scum away?

Others claim that fear plays
no good role in life,
that it leads to evil,
brings nothing but strife
They never seem to realize,
and God I wish they would,
that fear is needed to escape
from things that are not good!
You fear breaking the law
because it brings consequence,
you fear being unemployed
deprived of dollars and cents,
you fear the mad gang-banger
over-eager to kill,
we all fear the power-hungry
who would bend us to their will.
You fear riding without helmets
so you don't smash your head,
honestly, if not for fear
we all would be long dead.

And lately it is judgment
that is trendy to avoid,
for fear that some snowflake
may be somehow annoyed,
ignoring that one great truth
that normal people see:
you can never avoid judgment,
humans are judgment machines.
Judgment is what tells you
your partner is borderline,
that lutefisk is awful,
that there's no future in crime.
Judgment is the device
by which you pick your friends,
it's how you discern evil,
measure means and ends.
Avoiding judgment doesn't
make you a moral exemplar,
since without making judgments
morals won't get you far.

The thing of it that gets us
is moving to the extremes,
as much danger in too much,
as not doing anything,
take a lesson from the Buddhists
and find the middle path,
Tte point where it works for you
and doesn't drown you in wrath.
Surrendering to these emotions
makes you into their slave,
avoiding them entirely
also shortens your days.
It's tough to find balance
and to some it seems mad,
but anger, fear, and judgment
are some of the best friends you'll ever have.