THE GAIN IN OUR LOSS

Sweet are the uses of adversity

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

-Shakespeare-“As You Like It”

Emotion-a word that is much abused due to the irrational behavior that it leads to for us mere humans when we lack control over it.

Yet, we must also recognize that it is what is driving us to do what we do.

Fear, helps us become aware of dangerous situations.

Anger, drives us to yearn for justice.

The pursuit of happiness, makes us strive harder.

But sadness is much ignored in the role it plays in our life.

I would like to thoroughly examine this emotion for all it stands for in our lives.

I for one believe in yin and yang. The world is balanced on the good and the bad, light and darkness.

So we must consider that joy and sorrow are equally important when it comes to the meaning of life.

All literary geniuses have at some point of time derived from instances in their own life and made it into beautiful classics, that have survived the years that cast a spell of anonymity only to be found later perhaps even posthumously and recognized for their worth, for the emotion they imbue into the readers mind and soul. Sorrow, is indeed one emotion that transcends all religious and cultural differences and even chronological events or time frames.

It is sorrow, that drives the geniuses that compels them to strive harder, for they might be misunderstood in their time, but hope that their work would in a similar manner transcend time and space and be understood by some and touch them as the mere thought did when the inception of it changed the way they thought.

To make any theory more plausible we must consider the cases in which we might see this happen.

Alexander Graham Bell was actually inventing a device to make it easier for people who were hearing impaired. His impulse, it is said stemmed from the fact that his wife was hearing impaired.

Most of the grants for medical research (Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes) are given by people who are either inflicted with the disease themselves or who have an immediate family member who has the disease.

Nanotechnology, genetic engineering and many other scientifically advanced techniques are usually funded by people who are trying to avoid or delay death as much as they possibly can for the possibility of extending their life is the talisman they clutch against the sorrow of their nothingness after death.

Not to mention brain mapping funded by the American government for one of the reasons being it would help us understand Alzheimer’s better, a disease which more that 5 million of them are living with.

My point is sorrow is the most potent of emotions that may lead us to greatness or cripple us for life. How we deal with it is the crux of the issue.

A person who deals with adversity not denying it a position in his mind, but treating it warily like a worthy opponent who must be defeated, learning from it rather than letting it drift into the corner of his mind to fester and boil ultimately changing who he is and how he views the world shall let his sorrow help him become more productive and better yet become a useful stepping stone which might as well pave the way to success.

If only experience would not come at the price of child-like curiosity, like a cat who has been burnt by hot milk one too many times, we may be able to harness this emotion and use it unlike it has ever been before.

 

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