Do we talk much about Nines and sadness?
I find that I often drift off on waves of sadness.
It's not the great loss and melodramatic sadness we typically associate with Fours, it's a far more peaceful sadness. It almost feel like a recognition of the beauty of sadness; the unspoken beauty of loss.
There's no anger there; no regret there... just a reflection on the sadness.
Modern society imprints on us that sadness is "not OK." When a loved one or a beloved pet dies, it's OK to shed a tear or two, but we're advised to "get over" any sadness that lingers longer than that.
And what about the sadness that exists at a "macro" level; at a societal level. Sadness for lost generations; lost traditions; lost species; lost wilderness.
In Japanese culture, there is a lovely — and not translatable — phrase: "mono no aware."
As I said, it's not translatable; but one interpretation characterizes it as "the slight wistfulness we feel at the passing of a beautiful moment, with the knowledge that it will never occur again."
In a sense, it is an awareness and acknowledgment of the eternal transience and impermanence of all things.
It visits me, on a regular basis.
It consists of a thousand moments; often fleeting... the moments we sew together into the patchwork quilts that represent the totality of our lives; of our experiences.
There's nothing to rail against...
