Thin Silver Thread

College Essay written with the prompts "Definition Essay" and "Animal Emotion"

Emotion is a thin thread. Delicate as glass, resilient as steel, utterly private, universally shared, pure and white, glistening with the colors of a thousand galaxies folded upon each other. Emotion is what binds one to another, and words to moments in time; it binds places, and actions, and individuals, and entire lives to one single sensation, or to hundreds of separate sensations. Emotion is the thread that weaves and winds existences into something worth experiencing. The lace of emotion is smooth and beautiful and fatal. It is a soothing blanket during a cold night; it is the stiff rope swinging from the gallows. The strands imbed themselves deep into the body. Like wires, they will lift one high and pull one far below.

            Human emotion is an intricate web of experiences that span untold expanses and unmeasurable depths. Emotion is more than the meek feeling of happiness or fear. It is more than the natural reaction to physical harm, or the fleeting impressions born throughout the daylight only to dissolve by night. Emotion, the genuine essence of emotion, is the gut wrenching terror of a parent when their child never returns; it is the searing hot squeeze of joy when someone knows they are sincerely and utterly loved; it is shame, so deep, and raw, and tormenting that the soul is left scarred. Emotion has such a profound impact on an individual that it changes them. The silver thread of emotion ties itself to an experience and will not let go. Other threads may join the first, but an honest, primal emotion is not easily severed. Love, with its crude nature, is a thread that can never be shattered. Hate, and envy, and disappointment, as poisonous as they are, cannot break that silvery strand. The wisps of emotion that bind mother to child, lover to lover, defining moments to their intense sensations, make up the whole of life. Without the constant rewards of happiness and pride there would be no ambition to strive towards a goal. There would be no reason to relent against the constant misgivings of nature.

            Emotions are mental experiences that give amply, and take mercilessly from one’s will to endure the challenges of existing. The comforting embrace of the polished snakes of emotion can as quickly become the strangle hold that ends it all.  Emotions are reasons to live. The bubbling rush of happiness, the rambling spark of inspiration, the hot flush of love that squeezes the heart and clouds the mind, weave together in tight rows. The soft strings of emotions become the warm, secure embrace of a blanket. Emotions are reasons to die. The soul crushing pain of loss, the unbearable ache of loneliness, the poisonous cocktail of embarrassment and regret that breaks the heart and shatters the mind, coil together in a familiar pattern. The sharp cord of emotion becomes the lethal noose from which the crowds hang themselves.

            Emotion is a slick strand: thin as hair, strong as stone, rare as gold, deadly as a bullet. They sink like anchors beneath the skin. The threads bore deep, leaving their marks as they go. Emotions, especially the complex emotions of man, are the rewards and penalties of being alive. Experiences filled with love, and hope, and meaning knit together like a vital parachute after a leap of faith. They become a needed raft in a spontaneous flood. The strands of emotion are sharp, devious things. With every pull up, there is a pull down. Equality is not the nature of emotions. Some may fly high their whole lives. Others, like hunted birds, will be pulled from the heights with the utmost of prejudice. In times of loss, and loneliness, and weakness the glossy wire of emotion knots together like firm restraints to a chair. They become dense weights in a bottomless ocean.