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Re: Your post-happy HalfWitt
Posted By: Sam, on host 24.61.194.240
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2002, at 12:23:06
In Reply To: Re: Your post-happy HalfWitt posted by Mau-Evig on Thursday, March 7, 2002, at 05:28:22:

I don't think I agree with either of you. There are perils at both extremes, but I'm much more likely to trust rational thought -- not exclusively *logic* but a kind of reasoning that takes into account rightness (moral, spiritual, etc) as well as logic, even though the two are not always in obvious accord.

Feelings are fickle. What feels right one moment (an evening of heavy drinking, as a trivial example) may not the next (hangover the next morning!). An impulsive infatuation, lacking sense at the foundation, is sure to be more painful by manifold in the long run if you act on it when it feels good or right.

I'm not saying you should discount your feelings. They're what make us human and allow us to understand ourselves and each other. But the nature and degree of influence they have on our decisions needs to be channeled and prioritized.

In other posts, you talk about marriage, and that brings to mind a perfect example. In your married life, you are NOT always going to "feel" in love. Feelings don't have that kind of unchanging endurance. At one point or other, you're going to feel just almost every kind of emotion there is to feel. A good marriage is accompanied by mostly good feelings, but even the best marriage is not immune from times when frustration, anger, and bitterness hold sway. (Some even argue that a marriage without these occasional feelings is suspect, for if they never occurred, mightn't it be for lack of caring enough?)

But does that mean you do not love your wife, even amidst these feelings? One would hope this wouldn't be the case. If you view love as a feeling, though, perhaps it is, but I do not believe this at all. Love is more meaningful than that: a decision, a commitment, a never-ending series of actions that constitute behavior. If you choose to marry and love your wife even amidst the occasional feelings of frustration and anger that will inevitably occur from time to time, that is choosing what is right over what you feel in the moment. It also goes a long way in affirming for yourself that that marriage is a good and healthy one.

I believe that when one strives to do the right thing, the feelings, if they are not already in accord, will become so. I also believe that feelings, when considered along those same lines of rational thought you speak of so as to strain out those feelings that are impulsive and misleading, can be valuable indicators in determining what is right and what is not.

Consequently, as I say, either extreme -- considering one without the other, or prioritizing unwisely -- becomes perilous.

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