Beauty in Sadness

To each a question: Why are people threatened by sadness?

I happen to think that sadness is the catalyst for progress. It is the cause for realization. When people are happy, they get too caught up in the emotional high to think deeply. The euphoria gets the best of logic and reason and frankly, is quite dangerous. It is fleeting, thus, can be addictive and tends to progress faster and faster the more the cause is felt. Unlike being happy, when people are sad, they see black and white. They tend to repeat the events that led to this emotion and the thoughts are mostly deep. It is more difficult to express sadness or the reasons for being sad, hence most of it is sublimated into other forms of expression like in words (poetry or prose) and art (painting or dance) or both (songs and compositions). It is more difficult to express sadness openly because nobody wants to be sad. Although it is not addictive, it can tend to be a repetitive cycle and each episode may last days or weeks. A person can only be so distracted so as to not see the bigger picture.

As Sarah McLachlan put it, "There is beauty in sadness". I believe what she had said in that we must learn to appreciate emotions as they are, not only because they are effects of something. Being sad does not necessarily mean being miserable or angsty. It doesn't always mean being mellow. These are normal manifestations of sadness when we sometimes feel alone or unloved. But there are other forms of this emotion, not so much as feeling a void inside us, but more on being on the border of happiness and sadness. This is quite vague, I do admit. Let me try to explain further....

There are some times when we can't necessarily qualify what we feel. It's not a void, it's not such a strong emotion that ripples in our conscious minds, it's not something that drives us to a course of action. It's just a subtle feeling inside that we just can't pin-point to any particular feeling, other than, maybe, feeling like you're in a transition toward an emotional phase. Like maybe, the feeling of transition toward being sad, or the feeling of excitement preluded by a sudden smile on your face without any particular reason at the time that you smiled. Transience, I think, is the best word to describe this feeling.

On the other hand, there are times when we feel strong emotions toward two opposing poles of thought. This, I think, is more familiar to everyone as ambivalence. Being caught up in a decision where you can't quite understand if you are to feel happy or sad toward a situation. Or maybe the indecision itself causes some anxiety or distress. In which case, ambivalence is "more convenient" for us because we can point out the emotion, but can't quite choose which direction to take.

Therefore, if happiness and sadness are two opposing emotions, for the ambivalent person, his/her problems would only be to decide on a course of action and get the desired emotion in a "package deal" and, to pick the right time to decide to get the best results. However, for the transient person it is much more difficult. Since he/she doesn't exactly know what the emotions involved are, he/she wouldn't also know the best results IF he/she even had to choose in the first place. It's like being in the middle of everything but not knowing what's happening all around. The only thing you know is that you're taking little steps toward some direction, hoping that the direction is the one best for you. The only good thing about transience is that it's not supposed to last long. Humans have the capability to change emotions as often as they'd change positions while sleeping. The change doesn't occur all the time and is non-periodic. It can happen in a series or in glitches, and may be intense or pretty minor. Think of waking up as your course of action -- you never really know if you're gonna wake up on the right or wrong side of the bed, but, the mood you had before you slept counts in how you'd feel when you wake up.

Doesn't make sense does it? :X