Positive Versus Negative

Richard Wehrs: "My clay pieces (“St. Wilbur”, “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time”) are often expressions of what it is to be caught in the tension between good and evil – that uniquely human condition defined theologically by simul justus et peccatur (“at the same time, saint and sinner”). The natural desire, even yearning, for good – whether it’s to do good, be good, seem good, or whatever, so often is undermined by the equally natural propensity for mischief, greed, and flat-out evil. Such is our common plight, our common struggle as humans."


Wikipeda: The term yin-yang is used to describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world; and, how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.



Part I:  Positive and negative forces exist in all of us.  The interplay of those forces make us complex social beings even though we have regulated and periodic systems working in us.





Part II:  Our systems gather information and react accordingly.  If the temperature is too hot or cold, we remove or add clothes, turn on the AC or furnace, or perhaps change our intake of a beverage.  We decide how to act to different stimuli.  We choose when to become angry, when to be pained, and when to be happy.  As I have told a colleague, "Life is just inputs.  We decide our positive or negative emotional responses."

Part III.  If an event happens, two resulting emotional responses will occur, a positive and a negative though the absolute value of each may not be equal.  By that I mean, if on a scale of -10 to 10 (-10 is a horrendous feeling of pain and 10 is an immense feeling of joy), a feeling of a -3 may not have a +3 attached to it.  I often say "If every dark cloud has a silver lining then with every silver lining there exists a dark cloud."  For me, this is the ebb and flow of life.  My attitude dictates how I will react.