The dangerous thing about heat: it has no loyalty.  It doesn’t care who it burns.

It’s never easy to see a loved one leave this world. In this life, we’ve shared moment and memories.  Victories and defeats. The pain of those lost moments—of those lost companions—can be overwhelming. Remorse and regret show their heads. We lash out. We find ourselves crying “Why?!”  One might even find one’s self repeating a word that should have no place in our world of power struggle: Fair.

I’ve spent a significant period of my life trying to figure out what is the more “useful” reaction to remorse: Anger or Sadness? The answer, I have come to find, depends on what kind of life you would like to lead. Anger might give you the energy you need to get what you want. Sadness lets us feel the full breadth of what we've experienced. As William Blake wrote in Proverbs From Hell, “Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.”
 

But whether we choose anger or sadness, the emotion must be directed in a productive way. Because a mobster’s strength lies in grace—in tact. Little is gained from betraying one’s own emotion. To enjoy any level of retribution, one must suffer in silence. Keep your head down and continue the work.

This is the lesson that the smaller rogue groups of late refuse to learn. They keep their vengeance hot. Hot vengeance is weak because it’s brittle. We rush things. We make mistakes. Hot revenge is quick, which is why they must content themselves with eliminating the low-rankers that they find within their reach. This may keep their names on our minds and in the papers—but it’s in the obits and not the front page. They don’t know how to keep their heads down long enough to affect any real change.  And if they did, 3 months down the road, would anyone appreciate the significance anymore? But is that what it's really all about?  Don't fall into the ego trap.

Real revenge is served in cold and calculating blood. It takes money and skill, and those things take time to develop.

To those who have woken this week to find deceased parents, I say: Your pain is understandable. But you will do no justice to their memories by crying out on the streets as civilians or nameless thugs for justification or revenge. The best revenge, it’s said, is living well. So, instead, set about in crafting a reality that’s worthy of your fury. Or risk being labelled a hothead.