Reply #11: My tolerance is incredibly low

[get the red out]

I cannot take intense sadness, hopelessness, or violence without anything redeeming to go along with it. I soak in painful emotions from the news and even fiction to a high degree, and find I need to be extremely careful or I can loose a lot of time trying to come back from despair or anger. My husband tends to say "you can't watch this" in a loving (though quite funny) way when he sees something coming on the news that he knows will knock my emotions out for hours or even days. I am glad he does because I would rather not battle despair over things I can't do much about, waste of my energy when I might be of use somewhere else.

The funny thing is that when there is a redeeming and uplifting thread in some fiction, I can take violence. I am a HUGE Battlestar Gallactica fan, and though there is violence there is so much about people over coming things and seeking big answers and learning lessons that I didn't have a great problem with it. It was anything but mindless. I still think of the last episode and the spiritual lift it gave me.

I do hopeless stories worse than simply violent ones. When a story offers no hope, or teaches nothing; I just can't take it. I use to love Fantasy and can't even read it much anymore because I used to get a big lift from it and now it is generally very depressing (except for a few authors I still look for). If I want to be depressed I'll just watch CNN! If I want an escape misery isn't what I crave.

I love a good sexy book, as long as there's a lot of kindness and love. Very cool!