Elizabeth’s Reviews > Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart: What Art Teaches Us About the Wonder and Struggle of Being Alive > Status Update

We interact differently with experiences that cost us something; we tend to bring higher expectations and deeper engagement to those things into which we’ve invested something of ourselves.

It is a sign of emotional maturity to be able to feel competing emotions - like hope and sorrow - at the same time and sad stories give us practice. They help us develop empathy and compassion.