Frank’s fury: A lesson in clever substitution

G’day How do you handle it when you get really stirred up – like what do you do – is it destructive or can you turn it into something constructive?

The superheroes seem to be able to do it – turn their anger into heroic action.

Last week I was up on my brother-in-law’s farm - and he had this dead tree that had crashed to the ground a couple of years ago – it was huge - and Alan didn’t have the energy to cut off the roots and cut up the trunk in to small enough rings to move.

But while I was up there, he got really angry with his wife,- sulked for a bit, then with chain saw and truck and chains he went out to that huge tree, - cut off the roots from the trunk, - pulled the roots back into vertical with tow rope and truck and started cutting up the trunk rings – things beyond his energies for 2 years.

But today I want to share the impressive story about 8 year old Frank.

When he was in the local school, he had stabbed kids with his pencil, - smashed chairs over other kids who had annoyed him, -upturned tables, bitten one teacher, and kicked another one so hard she had to have time off teaching.

When I met Frank, he was quietly doodling away in a special school for disturbed kids.

His remarkable, unreliable teacher Craig, asked Frank if he would draw me a picture, and he did!

Now, in front of me on my desk, is still the pencil drawing Frank did so many years ago. It’s an awesome sketch of a boy dragon pleading with an evil looking mother dragon for the big grub she has in her mitt.

It's awesome because Frank drew it in under one minute, starting from mother's tail up around down, linking up exactly where he'd started as if was traced.

Craig said all his drawings were the same; only drawn in anger, always fast and perfect and always vicious.

I was told that Frank loved trucks.

Frank's dad was a truckie but his domestic violence towards his wife had forced him to leave - and a restraining order meant no contact with the family.  

Frank missed dad and his truck big time and . took out his frustration in the only way he had seen and knew how.

But, the teachers in the special school had noticed his incredible artistic talent.

So they armed him with a huge pile of blank paper and a set of sketching pencils.

They played up his love of animals to bring out his softer side, - gradually got him to accept a cuddle -which helped earth his emotional electricity - and rewarded him for going to pencil and paper as soon as he was hurt and… before he hurt anyone else. 

Three years later when I next heard of Frank, he was back in the normal class but doesn’t draw much these days.

He doesn’t need to. Maybe some day he’ll go back to it if some talented teacher can tap his gift, - but he’s allowed to go out in dad’s truck at weekends and is much more settled. Strangely enough Frank doesn't mind being a non-drawer now. He likes it just the way it is.

If you’ve learned to turn a negative to a positive in some way, - let me know and I may be able to share your story.