Emotions

What can one do when they are so overwhelming that they cripple? Dr. Laura likes to claim that men are hard-wired to be stoic. Others will claim that it is a result of social and cultural conditioning. As men seem to be geared more towards action, it would make sense that they would be designed to feel less emotion, lest they be inhibited. Emotions can also inhibit deliberation, or dominate it in one direction. (Partiality can interfere with deliberations involving justice, and thereby become improper if one is influenced to act against justice.)

Would it be controversial to say that such "stoicism" comes easier for men, but nonetheless is achievable by women, and in such cases would be laudable, not destructive of femininity? We have an image of how Christ experienced sadness. What is our image of the blessed Mother's suffering at the foot of the cross?

It cannot be said that men do not feel pain or sadness; but they don't vocalize it, and in some cultures (the infamous British stiff upper lip) it is hidden as much as possible. So the qustion for the individual to ask is this: is this continence gained through the application of reason, or the repression of emotion? One may be good, the certainly not. While anger is something I have repressed, I don't think the same is true for sadness. With time the need for expression has lessened, and only becomes present when the impact is great or there is great emotional attachment.

I don't think I can watch a disaster in the making and be asked to have this sort of knowledge while being powerless to do any about it. It's like dying a thousand little deaths. Would it be better to sever ties and then focus on what I can do through prayer?

PSALMUS 6
1 Magistro chori. Fidibus. Super octavam. PSALMUS. David.
2 Domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me
neque in ira tua corripias me.
3 Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam infirmus sum;
sana me, Domine, quoniam conturbata sunt ossa mea.
4 Et anima mea turbata est valde,
sed tu, Domine, usquequo?
5 Convertere, Domine, eripe animam meam;
salvum me fac propter misericordiam tuam.
6 Quoniam non est in morte, qui memor sit tui;
in inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi?
7 Laboravi in gemitu meo,
lavabam per singulas noctes lectum meum;
lacrimis meis stratum meum rigabam.
8 Turbatus est a maerore oculus meus,
inveteravi inter omnes inimicos meos.
9 Discedite a me, omnes, qui operamini iniquitatem,
quoniam exaudivit Dominus vocem fletus mei.
10 Exaudivit Dominus deprecationem meam,
Dominus orationem meam suscepit.
11 Erubescant et conturbentur vehementer omnes inimici mei;
convertantur et erubescant valde velociter.