Dialectics: Suffering and Happiness

It may seem as though that suffering and happiness are polar opposites. After all, how can one be happy, if he is suffering? Does not suffering impede happiness? And yet, one cannot exist without the other.

In a life without suffering, where you have only happiness, one would have a life devoid of some meaning. Some sort of 'emptiness' would preside. Without something to contrast against, the happiness loses its luster, and becomes the norm. Now there is no happiness and no suffering.

In a life of pure suffering, where there is no concept of happiness, the same principle applies. Without happiness to contrast the suffering to, suffering becomes the norm, the reality of life, and once again you have neither.

The greater the suffering it seems, the less it takes to please. From suffering comes much emotion, and much artistism. If Edgar Allen Poe had not suffered in his childhood, he would have had nothing to inspire his poetry. It is the taste of the forbidden fruit (happiness in this case) but the general lack of it, that creates a hole in the human heart. This hole is filled with emotion, with art, and with thought, much of which appeals to said lack of happiness.

Perhaps suffering is not "good", but good for us. Perhaps suffering is something people should learn to accept, and to expect, and in the long run, maybe even cherish, as means of expanding the soul.

Blogging Around

In response to Anna, on literary figures (and people in general) obsessing over the insignificant details of life, in particular The Manager, from "Heart of Darkness" :

Anna, although I agree with you on your take on the over-caring on the mundane details of life, I would have to disagree on its application to literature. I would argue that you are ~supposed~ to feel frustrated with The Manager on his small mindedness. That you aren't supposed to identify him, but see him in the way that you do, with a sense of almost disgust. In "the Little Prince", the little prince visits multiple planets on the way to Earth. On each of these lives an adult who each do a similar over-caring over tedious insignificant things.

In response to Patrick, on drum solos, and music as a language, with a structure to be followed and expanded upon:

You are absolutely right. For music, it would be keeping in time, for piano in particular (which is what I play), there would also be sticking to a chord progression as well. In art, there are the principles and elements of design (unity and movement, to name a few). Writing has the rules of language. All of these are languages though. All art forms have three qualities that are expressed to the receiving end: form, emotion, and thought. Music appeals first and foremost to emotion, visual arts to form, and writing to thought. But the rules that are made for each of these languages, are made to be broken. Once you know the rules, (and you do HAVE to know the rules first) you can experiment and create the bold and the avant garde. Oh, and that's a great drum solo by the way.