Healthy Release

letting go

of a slanderous heart --

while shelling the beans

Hosai Ozaki

Expressing emotions is natural. Unfortunately, as one becomes a member of a culture one learns which emotions are acceptable, which are not, the way one in which one is expected to experience it, and just how much that community of people with tolerate the release of that emotion. When an individual acts differently with their emotions than the tribe well, I think I'll let you the reader recall your own observations.

Suppression of emotions can become a primary coping mechanism. The problem with this is that a point comes after the suppression for an extended period time when the emotion eventually surfaces in a contorted way. Then that response and situation is frequently misunderstood.

So culture has created its own emotional dilemma and the phrase, "I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't," comes to my mind. I wonder if the poet is reminding us the value of allowing the emotion to exist in its natural state and then it is a healthier release.