Slices of Life
Something in the air
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Picture this: You are with a friend and they get a phone call. You do your best to ignore the conversation - even the one side you can hear. Your friend ends the phone call and without them saying a word, you know something is wrong.
Or this: You are with a group of friends. The air is happy and jovial. But then another couple joins the group and the atmosphere changes because something about their energy or their posture lets everyone know they are fighting - even though no harsh words have been said. No one is supposed to feel their angst.
Yet everyone does.
There is something in the air – intangible, yet palpable – that has changed in accordance with the couple’s discord, as it did with your friend after their phone conversation. It can’t be seen or even heard, but it is there. The air has changed and everyone in the room feels it. Knows it, without knowing it.
We sense things we don’t quite understand, but know to be true.
Negativity creates a palpable change in the air - as though the negative emotions are being thrown outward, pelting us with their power.
Except we all know that isn’t possible.
Unless it is.
There are so many things we don’t see.
There are so many things we don’t see and don’t understand.
There are so many things we don’t see and don’t understand that impact us all the time.
And for the most part, this defies definition.
How can there be something that is invisible, without sound or anything perceptible to the senses that nonetheless is palpable to everyone in the room?
We’ve all felt it, in one way or another, at one time or another.
The air changes in response to negativity. We can’t feel it in a way that we can physically describe, but we can feel it in ways that are nonetheless real. And if everyone in the room feels the same change in atmosphere, doesn’t that prove the legitimacy of its existence?
Negative energy emitted when there is a conflict is somehow perceptible. I don’t know how to explain it, but I know that it is. And in that, I’d like to take this conversation in another direction.
If negative emotions emit something that we can sense, logic leads us to the conclusion that positive emotions could have the same effect.
If we can sense negativity in the air, it’s only logical that we can also sense positivity.
And here’s where things get really exciting: not only can we sense it, we can create it.
There’s some power right there. Power of the superhuman variety, in my humble opinion.
You can create positivity by being positive yourself. In return, you can feed off the positivity of others. It’s a hypothesis that’s both simple and profound.
Imagine if it could be true. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Wouldn’t it solve some of life’s problems - or at least make them easier to bear?
I figure there’s no harm in trying. We’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose. (Well, except the negativity, and I don’t think any of us would mind losing that.)
If you could make someone’s day just a little bit better just by being positive, wouldn’t that be a habit worth cultivating?
I know I’m going to try.
Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright and author. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.
