Do you need sadness to know happiness?

[Matthead012]

I constantly wonder why sadness is a part of our existence whenever I have a bad day. Why do we need to be depressed? Even though I'm happy right now, I know that happiness won't last forever and will eventually give way to melancholy. Why is without grief, pleasure impossible?

The explanation is that there is no such thing as eternal happiness. A necessary feeling that we can't turn off is sadness. In spite of being able to, we shouldn't desire to. In order to appreciate and be grateful for the happy times in our lives more, we need to experience grief in our lives.

 

[JacobWatson]

Dude, I totally get what you're saying. It's like, why does sadness even have to be a thing, right? But you know, I've kinda come to see it as part of the whole human experience package. Like, without the lows, how can we really appreciate the highs? It's like a contrast thing, you know? And yeah, I guess if we were happy all the time, we might start taking it for granted. So, in a weird way, maybe the downs help us really savor the ups.