Posted by:
ThinkingOutLoud
(
)
Date: October 15, 2014 01:09PM
I feel good when I read a book that satisfies me--maybe it doesn't have a happy ending, or conclusions I agree with, but if it challenged me in some way, I tend to like it. It makes me feel really good, like the day was worth getting out of bed for. Other people sometimes argue with me about whether or not a particular book was good or true or not, but that doesn't change what I think, for me. What might make me change my mind, might be reading other/more in-depth info about the subject and talking with others who have done the same with other books, afterward. Gaining new knowledge= knowing more. I might be able to or want to, make a different decision, then.
I feel great when I am swimming leisurely in my own time; having once been a competitive swimmer, not having that pressure on how I do it and how quickly, makes swimming fun for me in a way it never really was before. It makes me feel at peace and like all is right with the world... Other people swimming lanes next to me may seem grumpy and unhappy, in a big hurry and too busy completing laps to enjoy the experience, themselves. I still feel great about me. What might change my mind about that, might be knowing the water wasn't clean, the pool not well maintained, or if I were injured while swimming, making swimming painful or difficult. New, outside information, different experiences that weren't exactly the same as ones I had before, might make me change my mind about swimming. But, I don't want to be those unhappy grumpy people swimming too fast, encouraging all the others to do the same, without thinking.
Feeling good about something isn't evidence something is true. It isn't evidence that the people who share that experience with you are good people like you are, or feel the same about things as you do. That they have your best interest at heart. That what they agree on, is what you agree with, either.
And not everything fun, is good for you. Too much cake, too often; too much partying or drinking; too much staying up all night, not working hard enough and goofing off; too much hanging out with people with braces on their brains, too much reading only one kind of literature with only one author or conclusion: none of that is any good for you.
Social and religious groups offer mental/physical benefits to your well being, and other benefits to those around you, when you do things together in groups. Food banks and drives to stock them, for one. Medical missions, for another.
Being lonely isn't good for primates, which we are, as humans. Homo sapiens sapiens are primates, no getting around that and they are groupers. They need social groups to survive. Language acquisition usually can't happen in isolation for us, for instance, and etiquette/using your manners and doing things which tend not to harm the group or threaten its survival, are learned in groups, too.
There are also very negative, harmful things that can happen in groups and to individuals doing things together in groups. Churches are groups, so are KKK rallies. The Air Force is a group, so are infantries made up of child soldiers. The police force is a group, and so is a gang. Ethnic cleansing can't happen unless there is one group who opposes another group and values them less; habitat can't get destroyed unless one group opposes another and values another group less.
Groups include, but they can exclude, too. Groups can help, but they can harm.
So, despite the fact that groups offer protections and benefits that individuals cannot duplicate by people standing alone, you do need to make sure that the group you ally yourself with is a good one and will work for you.
If it makes you feel good, if you are not harming yourself or anyone else by doing it, then go do that. But be truthful when you assess the situation: if it works for you but it is harming others; if you feel intense pressure to stay in the group and remain the same as others in the group; or you begin to see all others as opposition to the group, then stop going.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2014 01:10PM by bookratt.