Up and Down

Sometimes up, sometimes down. It’s funny how things can change at the drop of the proverbial hat. Not sure where that saying comes from, but it sounds goofy that anything could change at the literal drop of a hat. Hats not withstanding, things can change quickly. It never ceases to astonish me how one moment can be the polar opposite of the next. One moment up, the next moment down.

Of course, it works the other way, too: one moment down, the next moment up. It’s equally as fascinating and seems equally arbitrary. But it’s not really arbitrary at all. In fact, every moment is deliberate. Or, better said, our reaction to every moment is deliberate. Think about that for a moment.

I remember reading about an experiment when I was pursuing my undergraduate degree. This particular experiment had to do with attribution theory, specifically, misattribution of arousal. Sounds dirty, I know. The experiment went like this: a group of people assess the attractiveness of individuals in a set of photos. They then go on a long, seemingly dangerous hike. At the end, they assess the attractiveness of the photos again. Guess what happened? They assessed the attractiveness of the people in the photos more highly after the trek. Why? Because the adrenaline rush from the hike caused them to misattribute the source of their arousal. It wasn’t that the people were any better looking. It was simply that their excited state caused them to experience their surroundings differently.

Anger works the same way. Anger causes misattribution issues, too. Unfortunately, it’s normally not arousal. The key is that a decisions is made, conscious or otherwise, to feel a certain way as a result of a moment of anger. Keep it going or be the “hero” and find a way to behave your way into another state of mind? That’s a great question. It’s just hard maintaining that level of lucidity in the moments that usually require it the most.

Sometimes up, sometimes down, always a choice.