there’s this school of thought i didn’t realize i knew until recently, and i call it Mormon Politeness
one of the ideas in mormonism is this - if you’re not happy, you must be sinning. if you’re unhappy, god is not blessing you with the Holy Spirit in your life because you are doing something Wrong. and so you find things to be happy about. you find the joy in little things, and you cling on to them for dear life. you can’t grieve, you can’t hurt, you can’t be too angry or sad or morose or anything to that effect, because otherwise you are rejecting God’s Gifts and His Presence in your life. and so you find every silver lining. you create this aura of contentedness. you work to spin every issue into a lesson. you can only show Righteous Pity for those less fortunate, financially or spiritually. so you don your airs of Mormon Politeness.
and without darkness you will never know light, and without pain you will never know joy. when you try to paint every shadow with sunshine, turn every injury into a thing to cherish, the lines blur, and you lose the differences between emotions.