It's been said that the people who irritate us the most are our best teachers, and that reacting to to them diminishes our level of consciousness. I was thinking about this on a global scale this morning.

I thought about extraordinary people like Martin Luther King Jr., who led a civil rights movement with grace. Was he angry about how things were? Of course he was, but look at what he did with his anger. He took all that bigotry, ignorance and cruelty and went deep—very deep inside himself—for answers. Instead of reacting, he acted. He remained dignified and became a leader.