The idea was partially inspired by a friend who's had a particularly rough week. As my house-mates and I wondered how to console her, we realized that she often freaks out about little things, but we weren't sure how she reacted to 'big stuff'. I find that this particular friend and I are pretty similar, so I had a feeling her reaction would be much quieter than my house-mates expected. Sure enough, when I saw her the next day, she said that she went off by herself, curled up in a ball, and did her thing.
Back to my LA car ride--that's when I thought of an interesting analogy for the two types of emotional displays: those who wear their emotions on their sleeves, and those who...don't.
Emotions are birds. Some let their birds fly free, while others prefer to keep them in a cage so they can keep an eye on them. Initially, it seems like it is preferable to keep the birds caged. However, the problem with keeping the birds caged up is that on the rare occasion they do get out, they scatter with the breeze and it takes absolutely forever to locate them all and get them back in the cage. This is likely because these birds are more deprived for freedom than the birds that are free all the time. Once you do find the birds and put them all back (or as many as you can find), there is a feeling of unrest within the cage because the birds know what it feels like to fly free and want to return to their natural state.
So is it best to never let the birds out in the first place? Sometimes, we don't have a choice, but also it's a personal preference. It might be easier to keep them caged, but then again, birds have wings for a reason.
Photo credit: me. April 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment