Have you ever had mind emotions? Not those normal emotions like lust, desire, anger, excitement, or fear: such emotions come suddenly and disappear almost as fast, bypassing the brain and leaving only an after taste of something to file away as a detached memory, even if I should care to keep it - fleeting at best.
Most often my brain feels like a musty room, like its been shut up for a long long time. Gloomily closed up behind dusty drapes, filled with dark heavy furniture, cluttered by disorganized collections of random thoughts and walls lined by dusty shelves filled with forgotten memories. Its a close and claustrophobic space that I strive to escape from. Then something happens. Along comes someone who sweeps aside the curtains to reveal a morning sun that shows all the shabbiness of the room. They fling open the windows to let in a cool breeze that flows across the floor with a refreshing touch that displaces the stale air. This is a mind emotion, because my brain won't be the same again. I see old things anew, and feel new things as if I've always known; this sight will stay behind long after the feelings fade. Mind emotions take up residence; they spring clean the brain, rearrange the furniture (and give it a polish for good measure). Its hard to explain in one sentence - just as when you enter a new room its hard to describe in a few words. For with the curtains open the details are disclosed and each holds a story of understanding. It is amazing to me that until these experiences happen upon us, we can barely conceive of what they will be like, so content we are to die slowly in the suffocation of dark familiarity. My most recent mind emotion came squashed on a plane, reading Chesterton (again): "The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful." I'm now looking at modern life, the Godly and ungodly life, through a newly opened window.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
|