You've Gotta Be Awful Careful...

When you throw your emotions into the mix. Now, that's not to say you shouldn't have them. I would never say that. This isn't Equilibrium here.

What I'm saying is, when you let your personal emotions get in the way of realizing that everyone else has them as well, you're going to have a difficult time of interacting with anyone at all. Every now and then you have to put your own feelings aside to nurture someone elses. And as a teacher (someone trying to instruct others in all manner of ways, not just our favorite professors) it's not a good idea to let those rage out of control.

Firstly, because you lose a bit of credibility, unless you're speaking on the subject of emotions themselves. When people see that you can't even look past your own life experiences, they're not going to want to trust you with theirs now are they?

And secondly, because you're only going to hurt yourself when the world decides you're not as important as you thought you were in the first place. It'll hurt when it seems like nobody gives a damn. It'll hurt and you'll curse life and you'll ask God why everywhere you go it's the same story, and why nobody likes you.

See, the issue here is that there are actually two different types of emotion. Rational, and reactionary. Rational emotion is the emotion you feel constantly, the ideas you hold, the beliefs you defend. Reactionary emotion is when someone insults your mother and you tackle them to the ground with a butterfly knife at their throat. Okay, maybe that's a bit out there, but you get my point. If you can't control it, it becomes dangerous. There are those, however, who will argue that true emotion is not rational, and cannot be controlled. Well... yes and no. But in saying this, they're also saying that because I don't flip out when I hear about hate crimes, I must not care. Which is obviously wrong. A world ruled by reactionary emotion would be chaos.

My advice? Don't take things personally unless it's personal. Once you can choose when to act and when not to, all reactionary emotions aside, you'll find that you feel more powerful and validated, and that those very emotions (which are now rational) can be used more effectively.