Yay! It’s raining!

November 18, 2009 in Uncategorized

Sometimes feeling bad just feels good. Now there’s an oxymoron for you. Which is why I like it, of course.

Some people have a hard time understanding this. They think “bad” feelings are bad and “good” feelings are good. But no! Language fails us here. It’s the same thing with “bad” weather, which I find to be quite lovely sometimes.

There is something delicious about feeling that strange mix of sadness, despair, loneliness, and confusion that sometimes descends upon me in quiet moments of aloneness. There is a sense that nothing is right, and I can’t see my way out of the fog. But isn’t fog beautiful?

If I really surrender to the dark, complicated mess of those emotions, I feel something warm inside me, a glowing feeling in my chest. It is decidedly not a “bad” feeling. It almost feels like being in love. Perhaps in love with being alive?

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November 18, 2009 at 8:45 am

Reid Beels

I’d posit that “bad weather” (particularly the wintry kind) was so named in a time when “bad” meant “much harder to grow, hunt, or scavenge anything to eat”.

In other news, fog is really pretty. Probably my favorite piece of weather.

( thus, I present a reply that only deals with your metaphors and not what you’re actually talking about )

November 18, 2009 at 8:57 am

cheerfulnihilist

Haha, I love that you only commented on the metaphors! Interesting and plausible historical explanation for the definition of “bad” weather.

People seem to label “bad” the things that are unpleasant or harsh to the senses. But sometimes a little pain or deprivation can lead to pleasure! For example, cold rain may feel uncomfortable, but it also makes me feel more alive and invigorated, and also it makes being dry and warm even more pleasant by contrast.

To create a mini-theory, I propose that unpleasantness can actually be pleasurable because:
1. It causes our bodies to release compensatory chemicals such as endorphins
2. It makes us better appreciate pleasure by heightening the contrast between pain and pleasure

Oh, whoops, I’m avoiding studying.

November 18, 2009 at 12:46 pm

leslie

I understand, man. It’s like how my favorite thing to share with others is an outsider status.

November 18, 2009 at 4:45 pm

Bram Pitoyo

This blog made me reconsider a lot of the things I found to be true and false or better and worse. It seems that looking and living on ‘the other side’ of what we’re seeking can bring more appreciation to the very thing we’re seeking.

If unpleasantness can be pleasurable, and pleasure can be unpleasant: then maybe there is a lot of merit in living in one side of the field some of the time, and the other some of the time—so we can appreciate and experience both fully.

Maybe the key is to be sensitive to life’s ebb and flow. Natural systems seem to always maintain a dynamic equilibrium (too long to explain). So why try to resist it by, for instance, trying to remedy our sadness prematurely?

Maybe resisting will actually bring less joy than if we just dance alongside it.

But resisting is also a basic evolutionary principle. So, you know, you can blame it on that

November 18, 2009 at 10:02 pm

carla

It’s been rainy for the past 9 months in NYC. I do enjoy the days of clear weather even more now. The forecast for next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are for rain. Hope you enjoy it!

November 19, 2009 at 9:20 am

carla

I have trouble with “bad” feelings. They can devastate me. Hope to learn from you how to “enjoy” them.

November 24, 2009 at 1:00 am

millie