Our hearts respond to life as surely as our skin responds to sunlight. This truth is surely good. Our skin needs sunlight to thrive. Sunlight provides a sense of time to the day. It warms us and encourages us and refreshes us. We feel better in the sunlight - some of us even buy our own light boxes to mimic the sun to avoid seasonal depression.I don't know what I think of this quote. It reminds of the proverb "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." I like how it captures the balance between emotional distance which stifles life (and I lean strongly toward) and the danger of unchecked emotion. And being a person who burns incredibly easily, I like the sunlight/skin analogy. But there's something that just seems off about the quote. I'm not quite sure I can put my finger on it though.
In the same way, our passions are good for us. They provide meaning to life. Disappointments are not meant to be endured stoically, without a sense of loss, like Spock. Our passions are fundamental to what it means to be human. Great technical accomplishments achieved with machine-like efficiency is not the meaning of life. Life is about knowing - about relating.
Yet at the same time, only a great fool stands naked in the sun for hours at a time. The same rays that give warmth and hope also bring damage, burning our skin and, given enough opportunities, bringing deadly illness. While we may enjoy our day of tanning, we also assure ourselves an older look over the years.
In the same way, we need to learn to guard our hearts. Unshielded, they absorb more than they are meant bringing upon ourselves great pain. We desperately put our hope where it does not belong - and have our hopes dashed. Our hearts become cynical, possessive, fearful, lonely, bitter, jaded, insensitive. In the end, we not only don't feel the warmth of light, but end up burning others.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Emotions in Sunlight
Something I read today:
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2 comments:
The passage makes me think about how (and when, and to what extent) we should guard our hearts. Should I hold my emotions as much in check for a complete stranger as I do for my Mom? For my advisor as much as another professor? For a boyfriend as much as a friend I've known since kindergarden? For an athiest as much as a non-athiest? Should we (need to) consider how much we trust the other person? How much we want to trust the other person? How much the other person probably trusts us?
Perhaps, most of all, we have to make sure that we have an awareness of what we're doing and how it may impact ourselves and others. For example, by sharing emotions, do I know that I'm setting myself up for hurt - and am I prepared to handle that? How will I deal with that? Just as importantly, am I aware that I may be hurting others by either sharing too much or too little? Then why do I continue to do so?
This is all easier said than done, of course. :)
I dunno Al... I'm with you, it has some excellent stuff... Yes we do indeed need to gaurd our hearts because charm maybe decietful and beauty may be vain, but all the while those are incredibly cunning...and the wages of sin is death....
SO yes, we do indeed have to gaurd our hearts. But in the same right we are called to humble ourselves to the level of washing our neighbor's feet (metaphorically), which is essentially being very open and honest expecting nothing back....
Great caution has to be taken to gaurd your heart, or else there never would have been mention of Spiritual Armor in Ephesians 6... But I think there is a beautiful balance that can only be from God, to when where and how to gaurd yourself, "for the evil one is at your door like a lion."
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