LIFE IS ALL ABOUT EMOTIONS – EMOTIONS ARE MY MOST IMPORTANT MANIFESTATION

WISHING YOU A NICE GOOD EVENING !!

LIFE IS ALL ABOUT EMOTIONS –

EMOTIONS ARE MY MOST IMPORTANT MANIFESTATION

This day of torment, of craziness, of foolishness—only love can make it end in happiness and joy.

—W. A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, Le Nozze di Figaro (1786)

Lo, body and soul—this land,

My own Manhattan with spires, and the sparkling

and hurrying tides, and the ships,

The varied and ample land, the South and the North

in the light, Ohio’s shores and flashing Missouri,

And ever the far-spreading prairies cover’d with grass and corn.

Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty,

The violet and purple morn with just-felt breezes,

The gentle soft-born measureless light,

The miracle spreading bathing all, the fulfill’d noon,

The coming eve delicious, the welcome night and the stars,

Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land.

—Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”

My Bengal of Gold,

I love you.

Forever your skies,

Your air, set my heart in tune

As if it were a flute.

—Rabindranath Tagore, “Amar Shonar Bangla,” now the national anthem of Bangladesh

ALL SOCIETIES ARE FULL OF EMOTIONS.

I am reminded of my days of reading, reflecting Nussbaum, Martha C. and her vocal and written expression of importance of emotions in all spheres of life – There is no exception to the expression of emotions and I quote her -

“ The story of any day or week in the life of even a relatively stable democracy would include a host of emotions—anger, fear, sympathy, disgust, envy, guilt, grief, many forms of love. Some of these episodes of emotion have little to do with political principles or the public culture, but others are different: they take as their object the nation, the nation’s goals, its institutions and leaders, its geography, and one’s fellow citizens seen as fellow inhabitants of a common public space. Emotions directed at the geographical features of a nation are ways of channeling emotions toward its key commitments—to inclusiveness, equality, the relief of misery, the end of slavery. Whitman’s lyric is part of a poem mourning the death of Abraham Lincoln, and it expresses the combination of passionate love, pride, and deep grief that the speaker feels at the current state of his nation. “Amar Shonar Bangla” expressed Tagore’s capacious humanism, his aspiration toward an inclusive “religion of humanity” that would link all castes and religions in his society. Sung as the national anthem of a poor nation, it expresses both pride and love at the beauty of the land and (in subsequent verses) sadness at the work that remains to be done.

Such public emotions, frequently intense, have large-scale consequences for the nation’s progress toward its goals. They can give the pursuit of those goals new vigor and depth, but they can also derail that pursuit, introducing or reinforcing divisions, hierarchies, and forms of neglect or obtuseness. Societies are intensely emotional and that only such societies need to focus on the cultivation of emotions........ All societies, then, need to think about compassion for loss, anger at injustice, the limiting of envy and disgust in favor of inclusive sympathy. Ceding the terrain of emotion—shaping to anti liberal forces gives them a huge advantage in the people’s hearts and risks making people think of liberal values as tepid and boring. One reason Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru were such great political leaders for their liberal societies is that they understood the need to touch citizens’ hearts and to inspire, deliberately, strong emotions directed at the common work before them. All political principles, the good as well as the bad, need emotional support to ensure their stability over time, and all decent societies need to guard against division and hierarchy by cultivating appropriate sentiments of sympathy and love”

I was thinking today – the type of liberal society that aspires to justice and equal opportunity for all, there are two tasks for the political cultivation of emotion. One is to engender and sustain strong commitment to worthy projects that require effort and sacrifice—such as social redistribution, the full inclusion of previously excluded or marginalized groups, the protection of the environment, foreign aid, and the national defense. Most people tend toward narrowness of sympathy. They can easily become immured in narcissistic projects and forget about the needs of those outside their narrow circle. Emotions directed at the nation and its goals are frequently of great help in getting people to think larger thoughts and recommit themselves to a larger common good.

This thought process today emerged in me reading Martha Nussbaum’s interview in Time magazine last week – her comment – “You have to turn to the future and think which emotions will actually help us solve the problem,” – The comment took me to my study and reading Nussbaum seven years ago .... and I was nostalgic of that time of learning Martha Nussbaum !!

Yes Truly !! EMOTIONS are the key to design a peaceful ever co-creating society everywhere on the globe.

LIFE IS ALL ABOUT EMOTIONS-

EMOTIONS ARE MY MOST IMPORTANT MANIFESTATION !!

AND YES LIKE MARTHA MY MOST FAVOURITE EMOTION TO EXPERIENCE IS – LOVE !!!!!!

Back to my music of Mozart – The Fifth Symphony ...................................

A quote from him -

“This day of torment, of craziness, of foolishness—only love can make it

end in happiness and joy.”

—W. A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte, Le Nozze di Figaro (1786)

With Much Love – coupled with Much Appreciation –

GOD BLESS YOU !!!

Sudhanshu