2 ms·

Genuine question: if grieving is, ultimately, thinking about the experienced loss, isn't melancholy the exact same thing, but experienced through rose-tinted gl

• lordfrito 3y ago
  I think grieving is more about accepting the loss than just thinking about it. You can move on once you've accepted the loss, and really feel that acceptance of it. It's about letting go of things you can't have. Melancholy to me is like feeling both the good and the bad simultaneously. Not just the rosy part as you asked. And also I think there's a sublime aspect to it, something about understanding the mystery and all it's aspects. There's a sublime clarity in melancholy. I do think you can get stuck in melancholy, when you should be grieving. Also the article really makes me think that nostalgia is potentially a very dangerous emotion. We all feel it, but I think it's a retreat from a suffering you're facing, an avoidance mechanism. All growth comes from suffering, so by avoiding suffering you get stuck when you should be growing. Still it's very hard to let go of the stuff that was good in our youth, like the feeling of opening up that Nintendo on Christmas when you were ten.