If you could dial up any mood you wanted, at any time, would you do it? Or is the entire prospect of such a thing too dangerous for mere humans?
We have all experienced moments when we are filled with melancholy. And the reasons for such moments are often obscure, even to ourselves.
If, hypothetically, you had an app on your phone that you could use to set your mood, would that be desirable? I could certainly see ways it could be convenient.
There are situations where it is better for everyone if you are able to catch a certain mood. Perhaps a moment calls for you to be happy, or thoughtful, or amorous, or hungry, or receptive to a good laugh, or highly attuned to the feelings of others, to give just a few examples.
Yet I have a feeling that such an app would be highly dangerous. It would be offering a kind of false shortcut to a sense of enlightenment — one that would not have been earned.
And therefore, eventually, for many people it would become a drug. Perhaps it is good that we need to struggle with our moods, to negotiate with them and work through what they mean.
That struggle is an important part of who we are. If we try to take a shortcut around that, we may be removing something essential from ourselves, and we may end up losing far more than we have gained.