So often we feel many emotions at the same time. You can feel sadness and happiness at the same time. We even have a word for some iterations of this: bittersweet.
And if you contemplate that even “solid” emotions like anger are like clouds in the sky, they never manifest exactly the same way twice.
You can imagine that we have harmonic strings within us, capable of manifesting differing feelings. You can even make that number seven, corresponding to the emotions neurologists tell us we can feel: anger, sadness, joy, fear, disgust, contempt and surprise.
All of them can coexist in constantly varying quantities and FORMS. If you view each emotion as a waveform, all of them can coexist, playing different “notes” at varying intensity and rhythm. This is the mathematical form.
The Complex form is the cloud, or rather clouds. I do believe in energy fields, or rather, that we ARE an energy field, existing within an infinite energy field, clouds within THE cloud, with many subclouds existing at varying levels of complexity.
I mentioned humor, before I got distracted. I believe what makes us laugh is the habit of an infinitely fast, socially conditioned transition between two emotions: between rage/fear, and submission.
What makes us laugh is something which offends our sense of how things should be. It is something outrageous, ridiculous, incongruous, unexpected. What I believe happens is that the instant we hear something utterly unexpected, we feel fear and or rage. If we feel fear, there is instantaneous relief, as we realize there is no actual danger. If we feel rage, it is immediately followed by the human equivalent of a dog cowering in front of a dog which is superior, or a master which has abused it. The two feelings, admixed, generate laughter. Laughter serves the social role of allowing things to be said which are outrageous, without generating actual rage. Outrageous, as a word, kind of makes my point for me.
Many have pointed to laughter as a social lubricant. It allows the dissipation of anger, while protecting boundaries.
There is nothing funny about this post. But I do hope it is useful. Laughter is an important value. It is a powerful means for dispelling tension. But it is not the only means. I would say that being unable to laugh is worse than feeling the continual need to laugh, but there is a happy medium somewhere.