We are emotional beings. From cradle to grave, from dawn to dusk, our waking life is a ride on the multitude of emotions. But the irony is we never give a thought to the value of emotions. So what’s so special about them?

We are born into the world crying. Well, most of us at least. The very first emotion. Why did we cry? Was it because the peaceful womb was much cozier than the polluted, noisy world? Or was it because birth was a painful process? I wish I could remember. But I’m sure it was not tears of joy.

From the moment we emerged, love settled in. Maybe because it was love the emotion we first see. The love in mother’s eyes. And we give back that love to her, all the love our little heart can handle.

Soon came the companions. Fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, anger, pride, trust, shame, envy, courage..

But it was never a simple state of affairs. Emotions were not independent. They were such a tangled mess. With each day that passed, they kept evolving.

In the book “The Human Odyssey: Navigating the Twelve Stages of Life”, author Thomas Armstrong points out that each stage of life has its own unique gift to contribute to the world.

During pre-birth, it is potential. At birth, it’s hope. With infancy, comes vitality. Childhood brings playfulness, imagination and ingenuity. Adolescence is characterized by passion. With the various stages of adulthood it is enterprise, contemplation, benevolence and wisdom. With death and dying, we gift the world Life.

It is the spaghetti of emotions that defines all these gifts. An amalgam of everything.

Our emotions often eludes us. There comes confusing times where we are unsure whether to be happy or sad. Whether to show anger or affection. The love towards our children makes us fear for their lives, which makes us angry at their little adventures. Anniversaries make us happy for the years of togetherness, but at the same time sad about the love that is fading away. Never a simple affair.

In search of emotions, men lost their ways. People thought money would bring them happiness. So they forsake their today and lived miserably, in the anticipation for a happy tomorrow. But they never found happiness.

Men born with silver spoons thought money was the cause of all their unhappiness. They left their mountains of wealth behind and set out seeking cure for their heart’s discontent. Most of them didn’t succeed either. A tragedy, if I may.

Moments of emotions changed even the destinies of civilizations. Blinded by love, men fought each other. Iliad and Odessey were born. Betrayed by a moment’s rage, great wars were waged. Seemingly insignificant acts led to series of events and like an impossible butterfly effect, changed the course of the world.

These happened not just in the thousand year old tales. They happen everyday around us. It was a moment’s emotional outburst by a female cop that caused the Arab spring.

A Quora post by Nihal Mohammed sums up the story.

A Tunisian man named Mohammed Bouazizi, who made a living out of selling fruits and vegetables inspite of having a degree due to the high unemployment, was one day trying to sell his produce when a female police officer stopped him asking for the permit for selling. Upon his failure to produce it, she slapped him, spat at his face and confiscated his cart. Unable to bear the humiliation anymore, he went to the governors office demanding for his cart. Being refused, as a sign of protest and helplessness he lit himself on fire in the middle of the traffic. Angered by this, starting from his friends and relatives and soon the public started protesting within hours. The protests grew from being a local one to national level protests, and within 10 days, the Tunisian president Ben Ali, ruler of Tunisia for 23 years had to leave the country with his family and thereby end his rule over the country. Inspired by this, protesters took to streets of Egypt, and in 2 weeks, led to the ouster of President Hosni Mobarak, putting an end to his 30 year rule. Subsequently, protests followed in several other Arab countries ranging from Libya which saw Gaddafi being killed, Syria where unrest still prevails and Bahrain too, which was later coined the Arab Spring. And all this due to a police officer’s slap.

Agreed that the political imbalances and economic instabilities fueled the process, but what caused the people to take it to the streets was that emotional outburst by the police officer.