“I thought about how often this was needed in everyday life. How we feel lonely,
sometimes to the point of tears, but we don’t let those tears come because we are not
supposed to cry. Or how we feel a surge of love for a partner but we don’t say anything
because we’re frozen with the fear of what those words might do to the relationship.
Morrie’s approach was exactly the opposite. Turn on the faucet. Wash yourself with
the emotion. It won’t hurt you. It will only help. If you let the fear inside, if you pull it on
like a familiar shirt, then you can say to yourself, “All right, it’s just fear, I don’t have to let
it control me. I see it for what it is.”
Same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely—but eventually be
able to say, “All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I’m not afraid of feeling
lonely, but now I’m going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other
emotions in the world, and I’m going to experience them as well.”