Hi
I am sorry I needed to drop out for a bit--work pressures.
I am still thinking about why we have so much communication and art on pain and
misery, and so comparatively little on joy. I think actually, it is simpler
than explanations of neurons and empathy. As Tolstoy says: Happy families are
all alike; every unhappy
family is unhappy in its own way. Anna_Karenina
Reading about, sharing about, living about joy is, on some level, boring. What
more is there to say? Spider Robinson may be the only writer I like who can
capitalize on joy as he embodies the philosophy: Sharedpain is lessened; shared
joy, increased —
thus do we refute entropy. Of course, Spider throws in saving the universe
somewhere in each book so that the joy does not get too boring or the puns too
painful.
And if you are joyful, you are complete and content--and do not need to share
that content. When you are miserable, you need empathy and understanding and
need to
communicate your pain and understand how it differs from/resonates with
other's pain.
So my point here is that joy may be too simple, while pain may be too complex,
to fully communicate in an art form.
Deena Larsen
http://www.deenalarsen.net
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