Emotional Excesses

From the Urban Tarot, the Seven of Cups; from the Principles to Live By, Generosity:

          Following the Thoth Tarot, Scott labels this card 'Debauch,' meaning excess. This is not a sermon on the sinfulness of having fun, but on behavior that seeks self-indulgence without concern for anyone else. And while it may mean leaving your buddies to take care of an obnoxious, drunken idiot, it could also mean pouring out an excess of emotion on the heads of innocent bystanders. Such spewing reminds me of a quote from the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions:

But there is another kind of hangover which we all experience whether we are drinking or not. That is the emotional hangover, the direct result of yesterday’s and sometimes today’s excesses of negative emotion—anger, fear, jealousy, and the like. If we would live serenely today and tomorrow, we certainly need to eliminate these hangovers.

What is the solution? The Generosity tile suggests being willing to share my resources, including my time, energy and attention. Doing so will help pull me out of my self-orbit. In the words of Simone Weil, "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." Not only will it keep me from wallowing in the mud of my own making, it may avert the need for an aspirin and an ice-pack later.