You Act How You Listen (Pt 4)

After a musical theater detour last post, I am back on evaluating a specific song. I hear this song on the radio ever once and a while. When I was driving home last night, it came on and I thought... Perfect! The song is "Let Her Go" by Passenger.

Here is the chorus, that I absolutely love. (And perhaps you will see the connection I made)

Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go

Here is what I saw in this. We have discussed before things such as Bentham's Felicific Calculus and other ideas from Mill and the Greatest Happiness Principle. As Dr. Oliver, pointed out when traveling through our groups discussion, all these things are more about minimizing pain, than they are about maximizing pleasure or happiness. I had the opinion that if we only have pleasure with no pain, how do we know it is pleasure? Like the song quotes, you can only feel one thing if you have felt the opposite. 

Try it like this. Most people love cake. But if the only thing you eat is cake, it no longer tastes any good. Too much of a "good" thing is a bad thing. Though it is fair to say that we should shy away from pain,( stoicism takes this too far in my opinion).  I think that we only know that for instance, a gourmet hamburger taste really good, if we have tasted a McDonald's hamburger. Okay... weird example but oh so true. 

So this is why I love this song, it also remind me of that "Live Like We're Dying" song by Kris Allen. You know this one.... perhaps it is more familiar than "Let Her Go".


In conclusion, just like Aristotle suggested the Golden Mean, we should have a golden mean of pain or "bad" things in our lives. We certainly do not create them, but in a imperfect world they are bound to happen. We shouldn't embrace them, but perhaps we brace ourselves for them and understand that through them we can achieve higher pleasure.