Emotion Bubble

Emotion is its own container

Closed ecosystem

Members-only bubble

I get in by penetrating

The surface-tension skin

Encased

You bring me in

Submerged in your land

Held in your hands

Like a crystal ball

In this sphere

Disoriented here

I’m like a fish in an aquarium

Except inside is air

Outside is water

It’s an “airium”

I’m the pet

Of a water creature

Every few days

When she remembers

She feeds me

Even as I write these

Imaginary lines

In submersible pen

The words float away

On the tide

Of my emotions

You are so graceful

Darting about in here

As light ricochets

From a trillion swirling mirrors

Deceiving the eye

My bubble is strong

Though imaginary

And I know I can remain

With you as long

As I stay contained

What is the difference between love and desire? It is true that one can desire without loving and love without desiring. Yet doesn’t the object of your love also want your desire? And might the object of your desire wish to also have your love?

What is the difference between hatred and anger? Certainly if you hate someone, you must be angry with them. But you can certainly be angry at someone without hating them. Most of us have been angry with people we love - our parents, partners or children.

What is the difference between happiness and delusion? For every reason you have to be happy, aren’t there ten reasons for you to be unhappy? However, if you have deluded yourself into thinking everything is wonderful and you are therefore happy, is this happiness ‘true’ happiness or ‘false’ happiness?

Can you describe the emotion, love? Is it like roller coasters and fireworks? Or is it more like a river that winds slowly past with the beautiful music of water as its soundtrack and the sun glinting brighter than diamonds from every ripple? Is love the greatest happiness? If so, why is love so often associated with desire? Desire is a feeling of dissatisfaction waiting to be satisfied. Why does dissatisfaction (desire) seem to be so inextricably associated with love?

What about the words you use to describe your emotions? Words are designed to communicate thoughts. A thought is a firing of neurons in a pattern within the brain. Are any two brains exactly the same? No, they are all wired slightly differently. Therefore all our thoughts are slightly different.

Then there is point of view. If I stand here and you stand there and we both look at the same object, we are seeing it from different angles. Is is possible to see it from exactly the same angle at the same time?

Finally, we both have our own history. We form judgments based on our experience. No two experiences are exactly the same. They are all different. Therefore our ability to understand the thoughts of another are constantly affected by everything we have uniquely experienced.

Here is the bubble, illustrated. We are all in our own bubbles: our spheres are made up of our thoughts and feelings, points of view and separate histories. There is only one remedy for the situation: art.

Art supersedes language’s ability to communicate by speaking directly to the emotions. Visual art presents us with pictures that originate in the artist’s point of view; story and drama communicate through transference of a fabricated reality; music communicates through sounds that imply thoughts and emotions; and poetry paints images on the listeners’ and readers’ brains by forcing words to communicate more than they were designed to communicate.

So go ahead: create something. Thank you. Now I understand.