Donna Maria, Anne, Jessica's Wrist ca. 2006

Life is an emotional roller coaster. Whole belief-paradigms have been proposed and implemented based on that simple fact.
And this was way before roller coasters even existed.
At first there were two paradigms set up. Actually, at first there was only one. The second one came second.
That primary paradigm justified the emotional roller coaster. It dealt with the problem by creating a calculus for people by which they could reckon the justification of their messy emotional reactions. It provided that guideline to put anger, lust, fear and hate and all the others into a workable social matrix.
The second paradigm offered a totally different approach. It goes against the roller coaster, tries to shut it down. Instead of offering ways to fit the emotions into socially productive mechanics, it provides a means to ignore the emotions altogether in order to live a more personally fulfilled un-roller coaster life.
These two paradigms didn't compete on any large scale for a long, long time. That is until the third paradigm came along. Instead of justification and exoneration, it provided qualification.
This third paradigm set up a system whereby the emotional roller coaster is simply part of an existing process, neither good nor bad, just a bit of natural outcome given a certain circumstance. Without any need to get off the roller coaster or pay for the ride, this set up stated, simple facts.
The third paradigm got a lot of people from the first paradigm thinking. Then it got them to think hard about the second paradigm. Then they started fitting the second paradigm into the first paradigm and vice versa. Then there was trouble. People got wise to it and messed it all up in pretty quick succession.
I have little clue about where I sit with this stuff. I really enjoy the emotional peaks and troughs. They make my life exciting. But I really want to be happy and accepting.
Still a roller coaster for me no matter how you slice it.