Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Strong emotions

Conversation with Elder Son regarding the strength of emotions:

He:  Ah, guilt.  The only emotion stronger than fear.
Me:  What about love?  People will fight and die for love.  They run for fear.
He:  And hide from guilt.

Discuss...

7 comments:

The Gray Monk said...

The boy has a good point there ...

Christie Critters said...

Anger/Resentment. They can completely change your personality and cause you to do things that you normally wouldn't even consider...

Dani said...

I'm gonna second Anger as stronger than guilt. I can ignore guilt or at least learn to live with it but anger eats me up.

On the other hand I agree Love is stronger than either and can be more dangerous.

Andy said...

The young man is wise to be even pondering such things at his age.

Hate would have to be the topper, though (as far as negative emotions). It is always a struggle to "hate" what someone is doing without harboring hatred against them personally.

My wife has a saying, "Hatred is like drinking poison, and expecting the other person to die." That is true. And, that is why hatred must always be focused on actions, not on the person...I'm still working on that one.

Love is the definitely the most powerful of all. In fact, it is only the love of others that has helped me overcome fear, and guilt.

Bou said...

He has a good point. I wonder too... if at his age I would have said guilt. There were so many more guilty feelings at his age than I have now.

Regret... I think as we age, we have less guilt and more regret.

Roses said...

Holy crap, the regret!

Andy said...

Didn't think about "regret." I guess I gave up on that one a long while back.

But, I have counseled others to make sure they have none of it. Oddly, (and, this is personal & recent) someone I urged to "go for it," so as not to have any regrets got all screwed up by "going for it."

I almost knew that they were headed for heartache, but also knew that "regret" would haunt them, also. So, it was a toss-up. Only time will tell if they/we made the right call.