Lucky to Live Sad Moments

Louis C.K. describes feeling unpleasant feelings with Conan O'Brien (Sep. 2013):

"Underneath everything in your life, there's that thing — that forever empty — you know what I'm talking about? That knowledge that it's all for nothing and you're alone. It's down there. 

And sometimes when things clear away, you're not watching it, you're in your car, and you start going, Oh, no. Here it comes — that I'm alone. It starts to visit on you, just this sadness. Life is tremendously sad, just by being in it. 

And so you're driving, and you go [cringes] — that's why we text and drive. Look around. Pretty much 100% of people driving are texting. Everybody's murdering each other with their cars. But people are willing to risk taking a life and ruining their own because they don't want to be alone for a second. Because it's so hard. 

I was in my car one time, and a Bruce Springsteen song comes on, and it made me really sad...I heard it and it gave me kind of a fall, back-to-school depression feeling. It made me really sad. And I go, Okay. I'm gettin' sad. I gotta get the phone and write 'hi' to fifty people...

I started reaching for the phone and I said, You know what? Don't. Just be sad. Just stand in the way of it and let it hit you like a truck. And I let it come, and I just started to feel, Oh, my god. And I pulled over and I just cried like a bitch. I cried so much, and it was beautiful.

Sadness is poetic. You're lucky to live sad moments.  

And then I had happy feelings, because when you let yourself feel sad, your body has like antibodies. It has happiness that comes rushing in to meet the sadness. So I was grateful to feel sad, and then I met it with true, profound happiness. It was such a trip.

The thing is, because we don't want that first bit of sad, we push it away...You never feel completely sad or completely happy. You just feel kind of satisfied with your product, and then you die. 

So that's why I don't want to get a phone for my kids."