Sometimes the best way to understand something is to look at it from the other side. Those of us who have diabetes think a lot of the time about the special problems that we face. This makes thinking and acting as if we didn’t have diabetes all the more necessary. We all feel better when, for example, we can say that I am a lucky man or woman.
Yet sometimes it can help us to see the dark side of things. When we can fully envisage what we know in our hearts is what we want to avoid, we can move away from that negativity.
Someone who once was very close to me rarely if ever got excited about anything. In an emergency situation she was great, because she was always unflappable. But when things were great, by the same token she seldom if ever showed any enthusiasm. I admired her stoicism at the time, but now I feel sorry for her inability to experience emotion.
She came to mind today when I sat down to share a poem with you. This poem helped me see more clearly the value of emotion in our lives, and I think that it can help you too.
The author of this poem is the daughter of a friend of mine, and I reproduce it here with their permission. She wrote it as her essay to gain admission into an honors program at a Boston college. After you read it, I’m sure that you will appreciate that they accepted her application.
Life Without Emotion
By Ashley Adamson
Cones without ice cream
Sleep without sweet dreams
Beginning without end
Email without send
Stars without night
Wrong without right
A watch without time
Punishment without crime
Sports without competition
Practice without repetition
Studying without learning
Separation without yearning
Color without eyes
Graduation without good-byes
Birds without calls
Triumphs without falls
Sand without an ocean
Kids without commotion
Marriage without devotion
Life without emotion
Life without emotion?!?
Then you realize;
Dying is only one of many ways
You can lose your life.
This article is based on an earlier version of my article published by HealthCentral.
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