I can't help but think that people are too constrained in showing how they feel. Is this just a british quality?
I think that as long as I can remember, I have found people telling me to cheer up or that things are not too bad. Now, i'm not a pessimist, nor do I feel down often, but when ever I do, I have this feeling as if it is not accepted. As if that side of emotion in any quantity carries too much weight. As I understand it however, it is very British to be positive regardless of how dull the situation. Take the world wars, with the posters carrying Mr Spud, ready to be reused as pig feed or 'Make do and mend' says Mrs Sew and Sew. I remember the high school librarian would say to any tortured child informed that they will have to endure reading Spot The Dog with the same anticipation of getting into War and Peace for light reading 'Cheer up, it may never happen' when the kid really was grieving for their lost evening of sitting on the park bench outside the pub. In reflection, I think why not? Why not just let them experience sadness and loss? It is a valid emotion, created by chemicals released in the brain. Why is it bad?
Think then to a phrase I know everyone has been on the receiving end of, I may paraphrase over the long speech a fond grandmother might have conducted, however the short of it would be that one should cheer up, there are other people in worse situations. Look on the bright side. I don't doubt the logic in that sentence, nor the truth, however it seems very strange to me to not allow oneself to experience negativity, pessimism or sadness. I know they don't mean the same thing however the usual reaction to expressing such feelings result in a similar response where people should hide how they feel or forge a smile through it.
This I think I can show my strongest argument through seeing the flip side; showing happiness and joy. Think how plain the world would be if you were unable to show and express feeling of how happiness, joy or excitement unless you were the happiest person or you were in the best situation out of anyone else in the world. This sounds like a stupid concept, for we would have people with about as much emotion as a cardboard backed envelope with the exclusion of two individuals, one inhaling tungsten and the other on helium. A truly strange world. Why then are people so often muted from showing sadness?
I just think that as much as it is good to feel happiness, there is as much validity in feeling and sharing moods and emotions which are of unhappiness and sadness.
