(Video linke here). The other night on Conan, comedien/philosopher Louis C.K. talked about why he doesn’t let his kids have cell phones. The whole 4.50 minutes is great but the best, stunningly wise bit comes at about 2:53 when C.K. is describes the sudden wave of sadness —”a kind of fall-back-to-school depression feeling” —he felt when an old Springsteen song came on the radio.

You just gotta watch it, but if you want the words, they’re here:

So I started to get that sad feeling and I said Yknow what? Don’t!  Just be sad. Just let the sadness…stand in the way of it and let it hit you like a truck.

And I let it come …and I started to feel, Oh my God, and I pulled over and I just cried, like a bitch, I cried so much…And it was beautiful…it was like this beautiful…Sadness is poetic. 

You’re lucky to live sad moments. And then I had happy feelings because of it because when you let yourself feel sad, you’re body has like antibodies. It has happiness that comes rushing in to meet the sadness so I was grateful to feel sad and then I met it with true, profound happiness.

If you want to hear Springsteen’s echoing howls at the end of Jungleland, the song that moved Louis C.K, click this link and slide to 8:43 at the very end of the song

With thanks to David Saltman. 

Related posts:: louis c.k. on ‘putting the time in’
 the collected wisdom of louis c.k.
louis c.k. car dances ‘who are you?’ + rants on boredom
‘everything is so amazing, but nobody is happy’
louis c.k on being broke (with su tung-p’o)
how ‘not giving a sh*t can really help you a lot
daily tonic: johnny cash, the carter family + louis c.k.

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