Ruminations

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching says "Since the world points up beauty as such/There is ugliness too/If goodness is taken as goodness/Wickedness enters as well" which essentially means that goodness and badness balance each other out in the world. There can be no good without bad because we wouldn't ever know the difference.

Which made me go on this enormous rant in class about how the bad parts of life are necessary. We were discussing Lois Lowry's The Giver and I was talking about how if you remove all pain from society, you will also remove all pleasure. After my ridiculous lecture, one person looked at me and just said "dude, that's pretty heavy." I think he got it.

This meditation made me consider my own situation. I often gripe about how I am far too emotional about things and thus experience moments of intense pain when I get hurt. But it seems true that if things are balanced, I am making a cosmic trade by also experiencing great moments of joy as well. So I really think that my own pain is helping me by allowing me to experience moments that are fantastic. And even though I sometimes beg to be a less emotional person, I think the alternative would be worse. I'd rather suffer through terrible moments of loss to experience great moments, instead of being a heartless person who feels neither. With that, I am comforted.