At some point in my adult life, much later than I wish it had been, I learned that a person worth emulating is a person who possesses poise, calm, and sobriety. As fun as it can be to be excitable, or to be around excitable people, I have not often observed unchecked zeal to be the stuff that Super Bowl champions — or good portfolio managers, or good friends, or productive adults — are made of. Sound and fury can be useful, but grown-ups have to be people of sound judgment and judicious restraint if they are to maximize their God-given potential.
The current political environment brings this reality for individuals into the public realm. The Trump moment generates excitability and, in some cases, outright hysteria. It does so for good reasons (there can be bad things and good things worth being excited about), and it does so for awful reasons (many people are simply unhinged) — but it does so also because we are in a time defined far more by emotional exuberance than rational discourse (online and otherwise).
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