things I like part 6
- Going to movies (Let The Right One In) in old college districts on rainy nights when nothing else seems fun
- Soft sweaters
- 50% off Helmut Lang jeans from Polite Society
- Ben, who works at Polite Society
- Planning potlucks, with and without guest nutritionists
Last night while walking home in the rain I played this game (that I've been playing a lot lately) in my head where I'm dead and have lost all sensation and connection to the 5 senses, but still have a soul, so to speak. And I'm wherever I am and I'm really bored and I really all the sensations of real life. I beg and beg to be let back to Earth just to experience the feeling of something, anything, and I get dropped off where I am, in the rain, cold, windy, etc. But instead of being annoying, it's extremely refreshing and exhilarating. It's a rush of sensation, and I also sense other things, like youth, and health, and mobility. The feeling of being alive and free and then a big drop of water hits my face and I scream in delight.
Which makes me think, is our imagination capable of moving experiences from entirely unenjoyable to utterly enjoyable? Is it a practicable option? Or is it merely a forced thought experiment that doesn't actually work except maybe once or twice when you think of a new trick/game to play on yourself? Also, does imagination rely on a base mood to work with and build enjoyment/unenjoyment from? I was in a good mood last night, and therefore it might have been a lot easier to twist the circumstances into enjoyment. But I've done the same thing several times when it was really cold. Instead of tensing up and shivering, relax and let the cold in. Pull it in and savor it, and the cold has a different quality that's outside of the realm of pleasant or uncomfortable.
Which then leads me to think, are things made more enjoyable by embracing them, and less enjoyable by resisting them? If you hate the cold, and then find yourself in the cold, does hating the cold lead to even more dissatisfaction with the cold than if you didn't have that hate? It's a little circular, I think, but the level of expression of our desires or repulsions can be somewhat controlled. We can dislike something and yet experience it again with an open mind, I think. A mind that hasn't yet made the final judgment on all things cold. A mind that is open to seeking out other ways to experience the thing that has been experienced in solid detail before.
I mean, we go to sleep each night and are completely convinced of insane situations that are totally illogical in a million ways. And yet, we wake up each morning thinking we're experiencing an objective world. Our imaginations can bend our experience of the world in a million different ways, most illogical in some way. I'm not saying that we can change the world with our minds, but only that we can change our experience of the world. And, if that's true, why not spend our time changing our experience of the world to be the most enjoyable, rich, meaningful, appreciated, savored, loved world possible?