Pretend Emotions

 

On the fifth floor of the library there are warning signs everywhere with the word SILENCE printed in the middle of foreboding red circles.

Down on the second floor, the signs say COLLABORATE. There, you can laugh and share and chat within reason.

Perhaps on the third floor there are signs that take a more moderate stance - maybe they say: "AN OCCASIONAL EXCHANGED WORD OR SNEEZE IS FINE, BUT DON'T GET CARRIED AWAY."

I don't know what's on the fourth floor, but here on the fifth floor there is SILENCE. That's why you can't hear anything when you look at this picture. We ask that you observe silence while you look at this picture, also.

In this picture, we see a man pretending to cry because he misses his boyfriend and his daughter. Have you ever had a feeling that you couldn't quite feel fully? LIke those moments when you know that you'll have to vomit eventually, but it's not happening yet? Like a pimple that's been growing rounder and redder for days but refuses to pop?

Sometimes when we have an emotion lodged in a passage deep inside of us and we can't get it to move, we use pretending to try to dislodge the stasis.

The emotion is real. His boyfriend and his daughter are 322 and 325 miles away respectively. Even if he walked for ten hours every day, it would take 11 days.

Also you can't effectively cry on the fifth floor. You can cry silently for a little bit, but eventually the sobs come out. Do you remember that scene near the end of Pride and Prejudice when Emma Thompson tried to hold her sobs in and it didn't work? Eventually they gasped out and sounded embarrassing and ugly. Had Emma Thompson been on the fifth floor of the library, who knows what would have happened?

I recommend that you pretend something today and take a picture. Try to pretend something that you almost feel but not quite.

Everyone you see has some emotions lodged in awkward places. Please consider walking on sixth floor tippy-toes as you pass near them.