the whole world's waking up

When thinking on a theoretical level, emotions are incredibly abstract. Who is to say that what I feel as love is the same as what someone else feels as love? I can only describe to someone what I think is love, and then that person, drawing from his or her own personal experience with that emotion, could disagree or agree. If I had been brought up with parents who constantly harassed me, but at the same time was told in school that parents love their children, would my first impression of love not be something linked to harassment? If God is an all loving being, but Christians murder and steal on a daily basis, could someone say that love is a negative emotion? Perhaps, but I would say this is uncommon. A person would instead, correlate God, Christians, and harassment with negative emotions rather than say love is negative.

There seems to be some common idea among human beings that love is something pure and good. Strangely, this is one thing that everyone can agree on. It is similar for other emotions as well. Sadness, joy, anger, shame, envy. These are all hardwired into our structures. Though we all have different experiences with emotions, everyone has similar definitions of them. How did they come about? At some point in the history of the world, was there a national convention of men and women that convened to discuss their emotions? That's doubtful. What is even more peculiar is that emotions connect people on a much deeper level than mere chit chat. When a friend says they are sad, generally you will feel sad also. In fact it doesn't even have to be a friend; perhaps I'm only speaking for myself, but if a complete stranger told me that he was sad I would most likely relate with his feeling of sadness, and pity him. If you believe this, it then becomes increasingly difficult to accept that we walk through life alone. Rather we are a community, a network of living, dynamic spirits that experience joy and sadness together on a collective level. There is something within us all that connects us on a much deeper realm, something unseen and wonderful that makes exchanges with each other much more meaningful.

I'm going to cut myself off. Perhaps I'll continue this thought later, comments are welcome...