Time for Emotions

Would I pass the Emotional Test?

(Click Below)

[1]

 Leon relates to David Powell because neither one of them have emotional intelligence. Anyone who murders another human being without just cause lacks emotional intelligence.

I'm not a psychology major, I'm merely a proud English major. I do firmly believe, however, that I would pass the emotional test. On the basis of my [English major] theory, I argue that a fundamental part of emotion is fear, whether it be suffering, dying, failing, losing at love or competition or experiencing any sort of tragedy, self-imposed or other wise. If you don't believe this, think about the fear in your life, what it is and why you're scared of it. You'll soon find out a lot about yourself from pondering your own fears. But I digress. I would pass the emotional test for three reasons. 

1.Tragedy will occur in our lives at some point. More likely than this, we'll witness many tragedies before we meet our final destiny of death. Accepting this as part of life is a tool in dealing with emotions, though not forgetting them. The reaper is coming for us all, at some point. There is no denying that for any living being. We know this from observing everyone who has died after living a certain number of years, experiencing only a certain number of seasons before the reaper comes to harvest our bodily being as we know it. We'll all die--of something. Fear is something of an emotion we associate with various aspects of our lives depending on what kind of personality one might have. So it seems to reason that we should live every day like it is our last, almost fearless. But this usually involves goals.  We have a tendancy to focus on one area of our lives more than the other, thus neglecting some aspect of an emotion in favor of a goal. I'm not always good at balancing the two, but I try. And I think I'm getting better at it. I'm actually able to find some spare time for other things these days. Last year, that wasn't necessarily the case. I felt somewhat like an android, simply existing to accomplish the next mundane task. I also dealt with a few tragedies, and am still dealing with tragic matters. But the fact that i'm here, along with my fellow classmates who have faced their own tragedies, in spite of life's harsh circumstances indicates I'm not a quitter when it comes to emotions. Life happens. It makes you stronger. I haven't lost compassion, but I've learned to deal with tragedy. 

2. For me, being able to be inspired by emotion is one of my greatest assets. Often times, I have been inspired by emotion that later drove me to a turning point in my life. Whether I made a mistake that made me take an introspective look that resulted in me making a change for the better, or whether it was from observing someone else's emotion and sympathizing with it, I seem to be able to learn from emotion. But, sometimes, I feel crappy during the day because I have such a heavy workload. Sometimes, this becomes a burden on me. But then I try to turn this burden into a positive, or inspiring emotion (I live for spiting difficulty). Feelings are the key to making choices, as we can understand by listening to the program below. It's a story of Elliot who develops a brain tumor and loses his ability to feel emotions. The hosts of the program delve into the scientific findings of feelings. In some experiments, people can even put a number on how they feel about losing versus winning. In almost everything we do, in every decision we make, there are feelings involved.  The below discusses the story of not only Elliot, but the many facets of emotions underlying our choices and free will. 

 [2]

In my busy life at UT, I get caught up in the inevitable academic endeavors which involves neglecting compassion towards others at times in favor of my own personal goals. . Compassion is defined as, "{dag} 1. Suffering together with another, participation in suffering; fellow-feeling, sympathy. Obs.  [3]

3. I care. I'm such a bleeding heart, when I think about it. That's why I'm here at UT. I sometimes neglect my emotions because I realize other people are suffering and I want to help. Though some may say an aspiring lawyer has no compassion, I disagree.

But even I often get caught up in my own activities which involve my fears of not accomplishing my goals, I still think about things I "neglect" for lack of a better term and I know that I care.  I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, but I'm getting better at my fear of failing. Though sometimes I do feel like sort of an android because of all the demands entailed with meeting my goals. I have a fear, I guess, of being like Luba, "The artificial life force animating them seemed to fail if pressed to far . . . at least in some. But not all." [4]

Maintaining emotional intelligence is sort of an oxymoron because feelings are so relative to the individual and what they consider to be intelligent. But I do think there is such a thing. And though it may be hard to grasp, it can even be proven some people lack emotional intelligence altogether. When I watched Earthlings, I tried not to be disturbed by the images of animals being abused. There was even sort of an emotional shut off of sorts because I know that is reality and empirically those animals are being abused. But these are the things that drive me to wake up every day, in spite of the fear of failing, and backpack my way across the forty acres, as my brain soaks in thoughts and emotions contemplating all of the suffering and injustices in the world.... And all of a sudden.....  I see professor Bump feeding turtles down at the turtle pond with his grandchildren. I startle him as I say, "Professor Bump!"  I hope I don't cause him to fall over into the pond as I catch him red-handed feeding the turtles with his daughter and granddaughters. "A little animal compassion", says Professor Bump as his granddaughter tries to grab his attention away from me, "Grandpa!", she says.  I get a brief introduction as my scholarly demands pull me away from the delightful scene. And I think about a quote from the course anthology, "The key to intuiting another's feelings is in the ability to read nonverbal channels: tone of voice, gesture, facial expression, and the like." [5]  I walked away in admiration of my professor feeding turtles with his grandchildren who were obviously very glad to be there feeding the turtles. I could not only hear it in their voices, but see it in their faces--the excitement. 

For the brief moment in which I paused while pressed for time, it reminded me about being young and so excited about animals; how when you're young your imagination runs wild. . . . and I thought to myself that compassion is a very crucial element to teaching. I know I, and others, feel a lot of pressure in learning academics, but it's not something that involves a lot of feelings, compassion or excitement. Yet it seems even the turtles at UT have compassion. 

 [6]

 

And so I contemplate the meaning of compassion and the sympathetic imagination. I wonder to myself, could I, perhaps, use the sympathetic imagination approach to facing my fears such as swimming with sharks? I'm terrified of the ocean, though that doesn't mean I wish any harm to sharks. I've just been exposed to the (mis)representation of sharks as "dangerous" animals, when I know the data about them reflects otherwise. Still, yet I feel these fears and they stir my emotions. Even my emotions scare me and the emotions inside of those emotions within the core of those emotions and so on. And as I contemplate the story of Elliot, I'm thankful I'm not like him. Though I think monitoring and controlling your emotions is a valuable skill to have. I also think expressing emotions and delving into your fears is a healthy thing that ultimately makes you a more intelligent person and more in touch with your sympathetic imagination.

 [7]

Face your fears. . . .

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[1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH3h70aRFxQ

[2]http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/11/14
[3]Course anthology, p. 236
[4] Phillip, K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996), p 132
[5]Course anthology (emotional intelligence), p258

[6]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/39/120487714_1127153d82.jpg?v=0 

[7]http://dvice.com/pics/fear_shark.jpg