On the surprising history of cheerfulness and its subtle power | Aeon Essays

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A cheery mood, you might think, is a terribly self-absorbed response to serious times. But history tells us otherwise

‘Power dwells with cheerfulness,’ wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. Though we often think of cheerfulness as the opposite of power, as an insincere urge to liven things up, Emerson knew it to be a resource of the self, a tool for shaping our emotional lives that can help to relocate us in the social world and link us to community. At the present time, as we confront wave after wave of bad news sweeping the planet, cheerfulness is worth our consideration. With cheerfulness, we see a rise in emotional energy, a sudden uptick in mood. It is fleeting or ephemeral, in that it comes and goes. But we can…

On the surprising history of cheerfulness and its subtle power | Aeon Essays

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