Contrast: The spice of life

Think about a time when you felt really, really good...when you felt excitement or relief or joy or any other positive emotion that comes to you mind. You felt that way or you knew that was a positive feeling because you know the other side of the coin. When I am satisfied the most at dinner is after I have been fasting and when I have been snacking all day, dinner can only be so-so for me. All positive things exist because the negative exists.

Happiness and Sadness

For happiness to exist sadness must also. I always saw sadness as the antithesis of happiness, but this is not so. Boredom is much farther away from happiness than sadness. With sadness, happiness is somewhere nearby. When something tragic happens, say a loved one passes away, it is only sad because of the happiness and joy that you felt around that person or when you think of their memories. When your day goes well and everything falls together, you are happy because you know how things can be when things don't go well (maybe recently). The most difficult state that I've seen people in is when they are depressed, and depression and boredom are bedfellows.

Love and Enmity

For one to love, they must know enmity. A very loving person mustn't have enmity, but they must know it to recognize the love that they have. I am not afraid of enmity as much as I am of apathy. I want people to emote about me more than not knowing I exist. Of course I would rather have have the scale tilted toward love, but I do not want people close to me to not recognize me or not care about me at all. More apathy is not needed in this world. We must know of enmity and flee from it with such passion and fury that we only know of it through fairy tales where love conquers.

Fairy Tales

The reason fairy tales...or any tale for that matter are worthwhile is because of the contrast. If I am not taken up and down emotionally during a move...I want my $13 back!! (I can't believe how expensive movies are these days!) Beauty would be boring with out the Beast, Mulan would have nothing to fight and no story without the Huns....look at any good story and there you will find high contrast.

Beauty in Life

Contrast makes this sunset beautiful. The bright colors contrast magnificently. When you see a beautiful cloudy sky, there is probably high contrast between the fluffy white clouds with crisp edges against the bright blue sky.

I have noticed this everywhere in my life since I started to think about it. Through all the ebbs I realize that flows will be there also and visa versa. If you start to think about it, I bet you will see it too.