You know the magnetic emotion charts where you have 30 different faces of different emotions represented and there’s a blue “window” magnet that says “Today I Feel”, and you move it to encompass whatever particular mood you’re in? I’m not sure what I think about such charts.
I can see at least some good in these intriguing objects. Not only is it entertaining to try and pick out which mood I am in, but it really does seem that labeling things helps us in life. It’s amazing what simply saying that I’m smug at a particular moment can do. It puts my attitude and the situation at hand in some sort of perspective. But sometimes, A) I need to be irrational. I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and she made the very good and true point that sometimes, one (especially girls) just need to be irrational. And suffice it to say, “irrational” is not one of the moods listed. And B) My emotions generally do not conform with what is listed as an option.
This can mean one of a few things. 1) The chart is dysfunctional; 2) I’m an odd human being that doesn’t conform with this chart and therefore I just need to suck it up and deal; or 3) I can’t properly identify emotions. In these sorts of circumstances, I tend to opt for the first reason.
For instance, there is no “blah” face. Neither is there a “content” face. I can be hysterical, shocked, anxious, shy, or lovestruck, but I cannot be contemplative, blasé, or thoughtless. And being that my general state of being falls in and among those categories, I’m forced to lie to myself and say that I am enraged, ashamed, or disgusted.
Maybe that’s the problem with life and society today. We’re all held captive to the emotion charts. We are forced to live in the emotional extremes of life, which, let’s face it, is rather exhausting. So in the face of emotional trauma, what is there for one to do? Put the little window on “confused” and just accept your fate.
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2 comments:
Sorry, I removed my last reply because of embarrasing spelling errors.
No I think there is a tendency among "experts" to "reduce" and "categorize". Before experts can study a certain phenomenon, they first have to pin point exactly what it is. In order to pin point it, they need to capture it, and the way of "capturing it" in Western scientific tradition is to describe it with a few propositional phrases. So the reduction effects come from the need to encapsulate problems with propositional phrases. And in this case, "faces". The need to categorize come from the tendency to divide and conquer large and complex issues. This is, of course, not the best way of going about things.
Another thing is I am not sure what you meant by "girls need to act irrational". That's a myth in my opinion because I don't think girls have such monopoly over boys. I think most people think of "acting irrational" as the dominance of a person's desire, will, and emotion over logic and rationale in a person's action. That seems very rational to me because nobody acts upon everything in life as the result of logic. You don't eat junk food because it makes sense but because you want it. Acting rationally by denying your own will is equivalent of denying yourself to be human. Sin occurs when one's will goes unchecked and exceed a certain limit. Anyways, I can easily argue that everything you do is irrational.
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