I read this awesome Newsweek article about the value of sadness. I thought it was wonderful because it posits that our society's pop-psychology obsession with "happiness" and tendency to "medicalize sadness" is actually unhealthy. It doesn't glorify depression and pessimism, but instead suggests that allowing ourselves to feel during the down times is a normal part of being human, not something that by virtue begs a cure.I guess I got excited about it because I recognize that there is a strong melancholic (note that I didn't say depressive) streak in my personality, and maybe it isn't all together a bad thing.
Read it here.
4 comments:
Greetings again!
I ran across your "Open Letter From A Oneness Pentecostal" blog not long ago, and tried to offer some words of encouragement as one who grew up in, and still embraces, that doctrine. Sorry I didn't get the chance to respond to the ensuing wave of even more condescension. But the good news is, thanks to you I now know about ninetyandnine.com (discovered a former colleague of mine, Marlon Millner, there, too). And I've had the privilege of reading some of your writings there (love the piece on interracial dating, and "Catholicostalism," by the way). Anway, I've gotta check out that Newsweek article on sadness --really relevant in our current self-help saturated, avoid any hint of discomfort at any cost society. Let me know whenever you come out with the novel or screenplay, by the way!
Good to hear from you again! You are so sweet. The "Jephthah's Tent" blog (where I wrote "An Open Letter to Former Apostolic Pentecostals") was good while it lasted, but the administrator decided to delete it for lack of participation. :-( The responses to it were better than I expected, except for that last guy who kind of beat a dead horse into the ground in the end. lol.
I'm glad you're into 90&9--as you know, it's an AWESOME forum--it was a literal godsend for me, and thanks for your compliments on my articles and stories.
Newsweek is my favorite magazine of all time, and you'll really get a lot out of the article I linked. Thanks for stopping by! :-)
I, being one of those melancholy types as well, am also glad to hear sadness isn't all that bad afterall. I have always had a hunch that it helped you really feel, really live life.
Sorry that JephthahsTent.com went defunked. If you know anyone who would want to resurrect and run the site, I will give them the URL and would even continue to write for it. It is just that most of the people who pushed for me to put it up went silent on me in the contributions department.
Brian, I had another article idea brewing for Jephthah's Tent, but I never got around to submitting it. So, I'm one of the people who contributed to its defunct state. lol.
I wouldn't mind continuing to let it exist (even though contribution was slow) because people always come across stuff doing searches and what not. However, I would feel weird about trying to run it b/c it wasn't my baby and don't know the people who were pushing for it . . . I'll email you about it later. Maybe we can work something out.
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