“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

Some people structure their lives around their children, others around a career, or pleasure, or even pain. Again, these are simply certain focuses that you choose, that direct your experience. You can add other focuses while still retaining your own identity — indeed, enriching it.

There are many kinds of music. I could say: “Music is triumphant,” or “Music is tragic.” You would understand that I am not contradicting myself. You would not say, or (humorously) at least I hope you would not say: “Why would anyone write a composition like Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique?”⁸ Why would a composer choose a somber mood? The music itself would have its own sweep and power, and would indeed be beautiful beyond all concepts of good and evil.

(All very intent, leaning forward, eyes wide and dark:) In some manner, even a tragic composition of merit transcends tragedy itself. The composer was exultant in the midst of the deepest emotions of tragedy, or even of defeat. In such cases the tragedy itself is chosen as an emotional framework upon which the psyche plays. The framework is not thrust upon it, but indeed chosen precisely because of its own characteristics — even those of despondency, perhaps.