Happiness?

"The package of reactions that constitutes crying and sobbing is ready and active at birth; what we cry for, across a lifetime, changes with our experience."

-Demasio, from Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain

"On the other side of a mirror there's an inverse world, where the insane go sane; where bones climb out of the earth and recede to the first slime of love. 

And in the evening the sun is just rising.

Lovers cry because they are a day younger, and soon childhood robs them of their pleasure.

In such a world there is much sadness which, of course, is joy..."

-Antimatter by Russell Edson

Alright so I'm terrible at picking apart and understanding poetry, but I really enjoyed Edson's poem. All my opinions on what he is trying to say may be completely wrong, but yours may be too. So here we go. So in the beginning, Edson states that behind our mirror there is a different world, that is opposite of our own. The insane go sane, which is a good thing I would think. 'Bones climb out of the earth and recede to the first slime of love', weird, but cool. It could mean people who have died rise again. But does he truly mean they rise? Or does he mean that they begin their life anew. I guess that depends on your understanding of what he means by the first slime of love. The word recede would mean to go back into or backwards, which leads me to think Edson is actually talking about their moment of conception. On the other hand, he could just be referring to life itself. Next, he discusses that the sun rises in the evening, which is obviously opposite of our world. But it seems like he is referring to evening as a new beginning, not an end as we think of it. The next line is probably the most confusing to me. I mean, in the whole poem he is discussing the reversal of time and the effects of time (aka people who have gone insane revert back to sanity, those who have died come back to life or possibly even to conception, and the days seem to be going backwards). So it would follow that people would grow younger as opposed to older. Lovers lose each other because they revert back to childhood. This can sometimes be the opposite of our lives in the way that most people wish they could go back to childhood and not have to face an adult world. But in this poem, people do not want to go 'back' (?) to childhood because it means losing their adulthood. I believe in his last line, Edson is saying that in this strange other world, people are sad by the passing of life, just like in our world. However, before reading his poem I would have considered going back to childhood and coming back to life as joyful things. He gives us the other side of this idea. He writes his poem in a way that makes me feel sad for this other world, which is most likely the point. I mean, people are never really happy with what they have. They always want more or less, depending on the situation. Less homework, more ice cream; that kind of thing. This poem kind of makes me think of the whole 'the grass is greener on the other side' saying. No, it really isn't, or at least not according to Edson. Our sorrows could be nothing (and in most cases are nothing) compared to how large they could be. Like I said, I really have no clue if this is what Edson is trying to say at all. It just seems like he is saying nothing is perfect. Happiness is truly relative. But usually, most people wish their lives were different. Edson wants to to quit that and just be all kinds of happy with your current life. So do it. It could be worse.

Demasio discusses that our emotional reactions are based upon our experiences in life. I believe this to be fully true, and it definitely relates to Edson's poem, or at least, my perception of it. People who have had bad experiences could be happier in certain situations (even those that may not be the best situations to most) than those who have not due to their bad past. However, their bad experiences could also make them bitter towards any good experiences that come their way. On the other hand, people who have experienced extreme happiness may not be happy in situations that most find quite pleasing. But what really is happiness? I know Demasio is discussing all emotions (and in this specific quote, he talks about crying which is not always related to happiness), but for the sake of Edson's poem, I'll only be talking about happiness. I believe that happiness is different to everyone. Sadness, however, is a more universal emotion (but obviously not completely universal). For instance, I have a good friend that is completely content and happy to sit in his room all day and not speak to a single person. I, however, would hate that. I am happy talking with others and hate being cooped up in my room. We have different ideas of happiness. I think this definitely has something to do with our past experiences, as well as our personality differences (and personalities are somewhat based on environment- aka our experiences). We would both be sad if say our parents died or something though. Most people would. I'm not sure if my examples are making sense, but all in all, happiness depends on how you view the world and how much you wish you had a different kind of life.