REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Worth Repeating
  • My Book
  • FAQ

Sad Face

4/4/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
I have on occasion been asked to build marshmallow and toothpick towers as a team exercise to spice up a work meeting. That, I thought was functionally useless. A wiser manager did something different: he passed around a pencil and paper, and asked us to draw our emoji for the day. That got everybody’s attention. What surprised me was how many people drew sad faces, or something in between. They were being honest… the answer you don’t wait around for when you ask people cheerily “and how are you today?” Noting that we have a whole month in Canada dedicated to mental heath, we are not always OK. 

The topic came to mind because we had a reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes yesterday in church, and I was reminded how much of this book has entered common discourse. Ecclesiastes of course, is one of the wisdom books of the Bible, (The Book of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) which reflect on the sometimes hard contemplations of life. It’s not all happy faces. 

For the uninitiated, the book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, son of King David who asked God for the gift of wisdom. He’s famous for deciding the battle between two mothers over a newborn. Solomon asked for a sword to carve the baby in two. He didn’t mean it of course, but it certainly was an effective ruse to draw out the real mother - the one who wanted the baby to be spared. 
Picture
​We all know the book of Ecclesiastes. There’s the pop song Turn, Turn Turn, made famous by the Byrds which sources from Ecclesiastes 3: that there is a time for every purpose under Heaven. There is the quote politicians and valedictorians trot out when they want to appear wise: “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favour to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). There is everyday advice: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again” (Ecclesiastes 11:1). But Solomon keeps coming back to the same theme; sadness. “Sorrow is better than laughter, a sad countenance is good for the heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:3).

Some have said that the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s mid-life crisis writ large. Solomon was the man who had everything: he was King, he received over 25 tons of gold a year in tribute, he had a golden throne, robes, weapons, spices, 4,000 chariots and 12,000 horses. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and ruled in peace until his death from natural causes at age 80 in 931 BC. Solomon had it all, and enough time on his hands to plunge him into existential melancholy. 

All of which makes me ponder the role of occasional sadness. Sadness can be useful because it ferrets out what is wrong, and gives us reason and motivation to set things right again. Sadness is the goad which pulls you out of a slough and impels you to do useful things. If we were happy all the time, it would mean something is seriously wrong with us. 

I had one visit to a psychiatrist in my life. The man offered me a small bat and a pillow, and told me to beat the pillow and call out the names of people I was mad at. I have also been offered mood-altering medication to paper over my feelings during a time of stress and disenchantment. I didn’t pursue either of these options, because I decided that sadness meant there was some useful work to be done, if I allowed myself time to simply go through the emotion and look for the right answers. 

I took Jordan Peterson’s advice yesterday - if you want to fix your world, go clean your room. Specifically, I cleaned the basement and also set my shop in order. That’s just a start, but it’s something practical I can do. Three months ago, surgeons cut me up and sewed me back together again like a rag doll. They fixed my heart, but they didn’t address my soul. There’s more to the puzzle and sometimes the sad face is the right answer. More specifically, it’s the right question. Why did I have a heart attack in the first place? That’s a little more complex, a contemplation that must be broached because we are more than just pieces of equipment set in motion. God himself has set eternity in the human heart. Yes, that’s also a quote from Ecclesiastes (3:11), the book of wisdom from the sad king, that we just can’t seem to get enough of.  
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    A Display Of His Splendour
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Ad Man
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    All I Got
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Roads
    All Saints
    Almost
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    And A Little Child Shall Lead Them
    And Make It Beautiful
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    An Officer And A Gentleman
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    As Simple As Sunshine
    A Tale Of Two Crosses
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Baby Boom
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Bad Math
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Barcode
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Beauty On Purpose
    Being Different
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Best For Last
    Better Mousetrap
    Betty Toop
    Beware Of God
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Bit Part
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    Brazier
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Call To Prayer
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Cant
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Car Wash
    Chaos
    Cherry Picking
    Cherry Top
    Civil Disobedience
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Click Bait
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Colour Blind
    Coming To My Senses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Crazy
    Creed
    Crooked Made Straight
    Crucified Man
    Curated
    Curse Of Adam
    Damascus Road
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Data Overload
    Day Of The Dead
    Deliver Us From Evil
    Deposit Of Faith
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Dog House
    Doing Church
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Doing The Math
    Do It Yourself
    Dominion
    Dominus Vobiscum
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    English Leather
    Ensign
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Exiles
    Experience Wanted
    Faithful Servant
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Feeling It
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Five Minutes
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Season
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    Forward
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Gateway
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    God Calling...
    God Save The Queen
    Going In!
    Gone But Not Forgotten
    Gone Fishing
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Great Reset
    Grocery - A Short Story
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hammer Time
    Hands And Eyes
    Hands On
    Happy Rooster
    Hardwired
    Hearing Voices
    Heavy LIfting
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    Hid In My Heart
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Hodge Podge
    Holy Disorder
    Holy Father
    Home Economics
    Hymn Stories
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    If You Go I'll Go
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    In Code
    Incomplete
    Individual
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In Praise Of Culture
    In Praise Of The Middle
    In The Details
    In The Spirit
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    It's All A Stage
    I Will Remember
    Jackass
    Je Me Souviens
    John Henry
    Judge Not
    Jurisprudence
    Just A Few Words
    Just Have Faith
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lawn Nazi
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Lessons In Empathy
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Licking The Spoon
    Like A Flint
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem Ipsum Dolor
    Lost And Found
    Lost In Translation
    Luck Of The Stable
    Made To Dance
    Madonna
    Magical
    Make A Baby Laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Manifest
    Manwich
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles In Spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Meat Power
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Messiah
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    Moving Parts
    Mr. Good Enough
    Mr. Resolve
    My Neighbour
    Mystery Of The Cheshire Cat
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Needed Time
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    Obsessive
    Offended
    Oh Jerusalem
    Old Growth
    Old White Men
    On Adult Admission
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Orwell For Our Times
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particularity Of Place
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pea Game
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prepper
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner
    Promises Promises
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Psalter
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Rainbow
    Recognition
    Red Haired Step Child
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Resin
    Restoration
    Resurrection
    Retro
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sad Face
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Scrooge's Bedsheets
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove Tuesday
    Silent Witness
    Slippery Slope
    Small-c
    Small Graces
    Sock Monkeys
    Someone To Watch Over Me
    Song For The Lowly
    Sore Afraid
    Special Language Store
    Squat
    Squeeze Gently
    Starting With What Is True
    Status Quo
    Still True
    Street Food
    String Too Short To Be Saved
    Strongman
    Sufficient To The Day
    Superstar
    Take A Punch
    Takedown
    Talking Head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling The Story
    Thanksgiving
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    The Crossing King
    The Evil Day
    The General
    The Great Mystery
    The Harrowing Of Hell
    The Joys Of Hash
    The Man Who Was Always Right
    The Other Place
    The Place Beyond Knowing
    The Quickening
    The REAL Jesus
    The Reason For The Season
    Therefore Choose Life
    The Rules
    The Secret History
    The Stand That Wouldn't Stand
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    This Is My Body
    This Is The PLACE
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Time Warp
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tin Hat
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unlikely Saint
    Unmedicated
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    U-Turn
    Value Added
    Veni Vidi
    Virge 'n Mary
    WASP
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Doesn't Kill You
    What Lazarus Knew
    Wheat Gum
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Where Art Comes From
    While You Were Sleeping
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    Worthy Is The Lamb
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Worth Repeating
  • My Book
  • FAQ