The Story Behind the Anger

What lies beneath the behaviour we judge in others?

We see the anger, the silence, the difficult behaviour or even the way someone looks, and it can be easy to decide we know who they are. What we don’t see is everything that happened before we met them.

Aaron Watts knows what it is like to be judged by what people see. But behind the beard, tattoos and the anger he carried for many years is a story that began when his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when Aaron was just eleven years old.

Watch the Episode

☕ Pour yourself a cuppa, grab your favourite chocolate and join the conversation.

https://youtu.be/ZUq6GLHH06c

What’s Brewing in This Episode

What happens to a child watching someone they love slowly change through illness? For Aaron, fear and helplessness became anger. As he grew older and took on more responsibility for his father’s care, that anger followed him, affecting the choices he made and the life he believed he could have.

Our conversation goes beyond caregiving and grief. We talk about the years Aaron put his own life aside, the friends who could see more of what he was carrying than he realised, and what changed when he finally began letting go of some of that anger.

It also opens a much wider question. When we encounter someone who is angry, withdrawn or difficult to understand, how much do we really know about what brought them to that point?

Meet Aaron Watts

Aaron Watts is a former truck driver, author and host who spent almost two decades in the trucking industry. He is also a husband and dog dad to five rescue dogs.

After losing his father to Parkinson’s disease, Aaron began pursuing some of the things he had put aside for years. Today that includes writing, restoring his father’s 1968 Camaro and working towards his dream of creating Samantha’s Pawsome Rescue Ranch.

His experiences with caregiving, grief, anger and starting again have also led him to share his story in the hope that others, particularly younger men, won’t spend as many years carrying everything alone.

Brew the Change

This week’s Brew the Change is to have a conversation with someone whose story you don’t know.

This time, choose someone you’ve already formed an opinion about. Maybe they’re angry, maybe they’re quiet, or maybe they’re difficult to understand. Instead of making another assumption, spend a little time getting to know their story.

You may discover there’s far more beneath the surface than you first imagined.