Thoughts

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." --Lehi, speaking to his son Jacob. 2 Nephi, 2:11

My first thought when seeing this picture was, "Oh wow! Lucky him!" And who wouldn't think this? Why would anyone really want to feel sad, for any reason? I am here to explain why he may not be quite so lucky as I thought at first.

Now, this may be a hoax. It really could be, no doubt about it. But the mere thought of not feeling sad for the rest of your life...doesn't that make you a bit confused? It turns your mind in circles. Sadness is a natural human emotion that we need to feel so we can be happy.

My blog is quite literally about why you should smile all the time. Why would I want you to be sad? That seems rather contrary. But how are we to know how great it feels to feel happy without feeling sad every now and then?

Think of it this way. I take not having head lice as a major blessing, but I don't know how it feels to have it. Without actually knowing what it is like to have the head lice, I just think, "Head lice would be pretty bad, but just as long as I don't get it during something important, it wouldn't be that bad." I know this isn't true. I know it isn't! But since I don't know the feeling of having lice, I just assume it can't be that bad. I do this subconciously.

If I ever did get head lice, I would be able to better understand the wonderful feeling of not having it. I would enjoy not having it better than I do now, even though I don't have and never have had the terrible feeling of lice.

Picture this.

You have lost the ability to feel sad. You understand other people feel it, but you can't feel empathy for them, because you can't feel sad with them. You cannot comprehend the feeling. Too bad. Nothing you can do about it. 

Eventually, you begin to understand that not being sad doesn't mean you can't feel anger, you can feel shame, and you can most definetely feel annoyed. Because you don't know the feeling of sadness anymore, you turn to those to feel unhappy. By now, to you, being happy isn't a blessing anymore. You can't tell what the opposite of it is.

You don't know how sadness feels, but you do know how other negative emotions feel. Your pet dies. All you feel is anger. You feel as though there should be something else to feel, something more terrible than anger. But you can only feel anger and annoyedness and other unhappy-but-not-sad emotions. Because of this, you begin to blame yourself for not knowing what that emotion is.

But, once again, you cannot feel sad about blaming yourself. You are caught in an emotional loop. You have no escape.

And yet, you are not sad about it!

The point is, you can feel sad. You might even need to feel sad every now-and-then. But you can - and should - use your sadness to make yourself happier.

And also, you can be happy even when everyone else is sad, if you just choose to be.

Have a smiley day!