A teacher of mine remarked today that she thinks sadness is an important emotion. I was reflecting on that later this evening thinking that I’ve certainly felt sad many times in my life but never a deep, stinging feel of sadness usually associated with death. No one very close to me has ever died and I’ve only been to one funeral in my life. I have had dreams where someone close to me dies and I feel a profound sense of loss. And then I wake-up. In some strange, unexplainable way, I almost want to experience such a moment soon. I’ve never been a very outwardly emotional person and I think going through a profound loss would put me in touch with parts of me I have not yet discovered. In any case, I thought back to the fantastic post my friend Andy Sack had a few months ago, where he comments on the importance of sadness:
There’s nothing like a quiet, deep sadness to get you in touch with the profundity of life — having a sad year because of the loss of someone you love or because of bad relationships or some painful memory is something that we all experience but rarely appreciate and celebrate. And while sadness inherently isn’t something that is fun — it is a strong emotion and is a heck of a lot better than feeling numb to the world.
Well put, Andy.