True Sadness

'Cause I still wake up shaken by dreams
And I hate to say it, but the way that it seems
Is that no one is fine
Take the time to peel a few layers and you will find
True sadness

~ The Avett Brothers

I've been chalking it up to some bad juju in the atmosphere.  The last couple of weeks have just been too full of emotional upheaval.  So many friends and loved ones are hurting right now, and their pain becomes mine.  That's what love does.  I have always acknowledged the ancient Law of Duality (or, as I learned it years ago, "the Duality of Opposites").  Simplistically, duality posits that in order to know pain, one must know pleasure.  In order to know joy, one must know sorrow.  In order to know love, one must know the absence of love.  Taoism further suggests that within every independent entity lies a part of its opposite.  These emotions are not independent of one another, but rather a variation of the same unifying force throughout all of nature.  The road up and the road down are the same thing. ~ Hippolytus

Are you still with me?

The combination of the words true and sadness, though not words that are opposite in meaning, led me to a contemplation of dualism.  The word true calls up positive energy.  Truth is a force of good.  Sadness, on the other hand, strikes us as an undesirable condition.  "Why so sad?  Cheer up!"  ( I have an overwhelming urge to strike out when someone says this to me.  Am I alone in that?)  So I find the concept of true sadness compelling, and further thought leads me to an understanding and acceptance of the sadness within us all.  To be sad implies that one has known happiness, so perhaps it is beneficial to embrace the sadness, give it truth, and learn from it. Seth Avett said in an interview, "The phrase is speaking along the lines of viewing the life experience with some evenness.  Sadness is always there, and it's all right -- it outlines something that had to happen."

Like so many of my friends and loved ones, I find myself feeling sad today.  The circumstances causing our sadness are as varied as those that would provide us joy.  My plan is to accept the heaviness in my heart, be mindful of others' pain, and do what I can to find that balance between joy and sorrow.

I write these posts a day before publishing them, so I am writing this on January 16.  While doing so, my good friend Jeannine, having no idea that I was writing this, sent me a message.  "Heard on the news that today is considered the saddest day of the year."  Seriously.  I'm not kidding.  I looked it up, and sure enough, today is designated Blue Monday.  The date is calculated using a series of factors in a mathematical formula.  The factors include weather, debt level, amount of time since Christmas, the time since failing our New Year's resolutions, low motivational levels, and the feeling of a need to take charge of the situation.  In other words, bad juju!  The coincidence of my selecting this song without even knowing that it's the saddest day of the year has given me a chuckle, so I am truly taking charge of the situation!  Here's to True Sadness and the smile it put on my face!