Wednesday 1 December 2010

Acknowledging Personal Tragedy

"Many people spend an inordinate amount of emotional effort on deluding themselves into thinking that they have not experienced any tragedy. They are afraid to acknowledge the sadness they feel because it can be all-consuming and interfere with normal social relations. In public, we are expected to swallow our sadness. We try not to cry or to express our sentiments too openly. This is part of a grand conspiracy. If everyone acknowledged the reality of tragedy, we would realise how painful life really is.

"I have never felt comfortable deluding myself into thinking that my pain isn’t so bad. If I feel a great loss, it gives me no comfort knowing that others have lost more, are more confused, or have had worse things happen to them. My feelings are my own, and I cannot compare them with other people’s feelings. My pain and yours will always be different. We don’t have any way of gauging its abundance. But ignoring it is nothing more than delusiona
l." (p.123)

- Greg Graffin, Anarchy Evolution (2010)

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