Losing Control

Today's text says Joseph lost control. Usually we think of losing control as a bad thing. What happened here?

Can you say chutzpah? How about arrogance? Or is ignorance a more appropriate word for people behaving badly? Alec Baldwin leaves scathing telephone messages on the answering machine for his young daughter; Charlie Sheen trashes hotel rooms in a drinking spree; and even perky Katie Couric has been known to leave underlings trembling with fear following bursts of anger, withering glances and cutting snide remarks. Beloved poet Robert Frost, whose gentle lines about roads not taken and stone walls making good neighbors, was also known publicly to castigate late-comers who tried to slip quietly into his poetry readings. When the number in the audience did not meet his expectations, he informed organizers that he was not a rural high school English teacher who could be ignored. Rather, the implication went, he was someone to be reckoned with, a man of distinction and even power who deserved better than what he was receiving.

Or, if Frost is too dated an example, think Kanye West.

A recent ...