Emotion is not always weakness. Often I feel it is the greatest of strengths. Emotions give you a reason to want to escape, to grow. If I didn’t feel cold and alienated and unlovable then there would be no reason for me to be afraid. Without fear, there is no vulnerability. To be vulnerable is to be beautiful. Beautiful things are easily ruined, easily scarred. Consistantly stepped on and brought to nothing by those who cannot appreciate them. Vulnerability is this tendency to be hurt, maimed by circumstance, brought to nothing.
So you see emotions are the basis of beauty. But it is more. Emotions are the root of escapism. Without them, from what would you escape? The monster under the bed? The lions of injustice? No, because these are the products of fear and passion: strong emotions. Escapism breeds creativity and growth. Solitary study brings us ideas, brings truth. Pain gives us occasion to transcend, to improve as people. To cope. To become mature. Maturity cannot come without some adequate response to your own human suffering. Without feeling pain, we could not grow. The physical suffering associated with living in squalor exists side by side with deep emotional scarring which leads us to seek forgiveness and redemption for both those who have hurt us and those we have hurt.
The ability to love is perhaps our greatest strength. Love, real love, will bring us happiness. The emotion happiness leads to productivity, a life of purpose. Without drive to succeed, we would merely exist. We’d get by, somehow, on a mixture of sunlight and air. But it would be a life without substance. Scarcely a life at all.
