Grief
Grief is an emotion we have or will experience at some point in our lives. Grief over people and, maybe, of things lost.
What is grief, really? It, according to Merriam-Webster online, can be "deep sadness caused especially by someone's death", "a cause of deep sadness", or "trouble or annoyance".
The first definition, in my opinion, should be extended to include the death of something. But, thinking about the second definition, I wonder if that is not a more complete and exhaustive application of the word. If defining grief as "a cause of deep sadness" does not cover the emotion evoked by the death of a loved one, the loss of something precious, a missed opportunity, a mishap, a regrettable choice or even the actions of a person dear to you, then I do not know what does. Somehow its synonyms - anguish, sorrow, affliction, heartache, heartbreak, sorriness, woe - do not quite seem to capture the totality and range the word encompasses.
How do we deal with grief? Do we really need to grieve? How best to absorb or expunge the emotion itself, or the cause, from ourselves? Will doing either heal us? Or will our choice plunge us deeper into the mire of negative emotion (as in " a troublesome or intractable situation", though "mire" literally means "thick/heavy and deep mud, often slushy" so, imagine being in a thick or heavy deep slushy mud of emotion! Drowning!!) and isn't the condition of grieving not often an intractable one?
And is grief negative? Or is it positive, a necessary process should we wish to purge the sadness (or the cause of it) from our souls?
I have no idea. On this particular emotion, I am at a loss. Time heals all wounds they say, but is the grief a wound that needs the balm of time to soothe over the festering soreness of loss, the pain absorbed, lessened but still there? Or is it like the maggots that eat dead flesh (eeewww) but are used to get rid of gangrenous or necrotic flesh in diseased humans in order to save the life or limb in question, cleaning out the grief, never to be felt again?
Anyway.....
What is grief, really? It, according to Merriam-Webster online, can be "deep sadness caused especially by someone's death", "a cause of deep sadness", or "trouble or annoyance".
The first definition, in my opinion, should be extended to include the death of something. But, thinking about the second definition, I wonder if that is not a more complete and exhaustive application of the word. If defining grief as "a cause of deep sadness" does not cover the emotion evoked by the death of a loved one, the loss of something precious, a missed opportunity, a mishap, a regrettable choice or even the actions of a person dear to you, then I do not know what does. Somehow its synonyms - anguish, sorrow, affliction, heartache, heartbreak, sorriness, woe - do not quite seem to capture the totality and range the word encompasses.
How do we deal with grief? Do we really need to grieve? How best to absorb or expunge the emotion itself, or the cause, from ourselves? Will doing either heal us? Or will our choice plunge us deeper into the mire of negative emotion (as in " a troublesome or intractable situation", though "mire" literally means "thick/heavy and deep mud, often slushy" so, imagine being in a thick or heavy deep slushy mud of emotion! Drowning!!) and isn't the condition of grieving not often an intractable one?
And is grief negative? Or is it positive, a necessary process should we wish to purge the sadness (or the cause of it) from our souls?
I have no idea. On this particular emotion, I am at a loss. Time heals all wounds they say, but is the grief a wound that needs the balm of time to soothe over the festering soreness of loss, the pain absorbed, lessened but still there? Or is it like the maggots that eat dead flesh (eeewww) but are used to get rid of gangrenous or necrotic flesh in diseased humans in order to save the life or limb in question, cleaning out the grief, never to be felt again?
Anyway.....
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