Psychological and Philosophical Theorizing of Cool

Emptiness is a feeling in which many people will experience in their lives. It is not something that can easily be defined. Some often describe it as a black hole, where the void is filled with our own darkness. Its a sense that comes from our illusion of missing something we feel we need. There are often times people disregard the hole and find meaningless ways to cover or fill the hole so it does not sallow us whole. I feel like emptiness is never in one part of the body but encompasses the whole being. It is a destructive emotion in which clouds the senses. It is no more attainable through our emotions then it is to say we are happy. Two of the very same emotion on opposite scales of the spectrum. Emptiness swallows all else and leaves nothing but a feeling of having something missing. There is no happiness or anger, its just one sense that I would connect to being lonely. When you are lonely I feel like it is the same as emptiness. There's nothing there, your all alone with no one near you and it can be the same as emptiness. Although emptiness can be seen as one emotionless pit. Most people do not directly face the problem. They leave the hole in the back of their mind behind closed doors, and after a while they become afraid of what might have been created in the time they left it there.

Stoicism was founded in Athens by Zeno. Stoicism considers destructive emotions to be the result of errors in judgment. They believe that a sage ("moral and intellectual perfection") would not experience these emotions. Stoics belief was that it is highly important to maintain a will in accord with nature. Stoics view that only a sage is free from such emotions and trivial ways of life. This philosophy helps develop self control over destructive emotions. "The philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason". Unlike many people think Stoic does not teach to abandon all emotions but to transform them into into reason so one can find inner calm and clear judgement.
"Following Socrates, the Stoics held that unhappiness and evil are the results of human ignorance of the reason in nature. If someone is unkind, it is because they are unaware of their own universal reason which would lead to the conclusion of kindness. If they are unhappy, it is because they have forgotten how nature actually functions — unhappiness is having one's unrealistic expectations of reality go unfulfilled. The solution to evil and unhappiness then, is the practice of Stoic philosophy — to examine one's own judgments and behaviour and determine where they have diverged from the universal reason of nature."
After reading this passage I ultimately thought of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. In the book Coelho held some of the same philosophies as Stoicism. They both believed in the universal language and the fact that everything was connected. There was also the soul of the world in which the young boy Santiago was able to understand by the end of his journey. This can connect with their argument of nature. Nature plays a big part in being free in the sense of not being controlled by our emotions. Santiago on his journey meets many people along with a King, a Crystal merchant, an Englishman, and the Alchemist. They all play a role in helping the boy discover his personal legend. The king helps him on his journey by explaining that he must follow his personal legend and that everything will help him accomplish his true goal. After being robbed he works in the crystal shop and decides to go back home. But after talking to the store owner about his decision the boy realizes that he is even closer to his legend and that there was nothing really stopping him from going. The Englishman and the Alchemist helped the boy realize that he had the power all along to get to his goal and that he could already read the soul of the world. After the book I wondered if it was some people's personal legend to never find there's but instead to be stones on the path of someones quest to find theirs. Emptiness was present but the boy after reading the soul of the world and listening to his heart was able to over come it. Just like the Stoics believed you needed to overcome such emotions with reason to find clear judgement and inner calm. Both the boy succeeded in.

Another book which plays into this sense of emptiness and explores many existential themes but also Stoicism is The Stranger by Albert Camus. Though unlike the boy in The Alchemist, Meursualt did not find his inner peace in the same way and some can even ague he that he never found it. Meursualt's life was fully of emptiness and he came off to others as uncaring and indifferent. This causes him to be disliked by many people and the reason why he was convicted of the murder of the Arab. Though during the trial, his mothers death was brought up and the lack of grief from him. They could not understand how a son could have no reaction to his mothers death. This can be seen as the biggest factor in why they thought Meursualt was guilty of the crime even though both incidents were totally separate. At the end Meursault finally explodes into a whirl wind of emotion. He starts screaming out and tries to understand the world and his emotions. When he is done and everything is quiet again he realizes that he was right all along, the world was as cold and as uncaring as he so why should he have lived any differently then he had. Coming up with his resolution, Meursualt is finally at peace and is content with his death not afraid of his end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Stranger by Albert Camus