Sadness is Dough, Happiness is Bread

A Subtle, Slow Rising

There is not a thing that is more positive than bread. —Fyodor Dostoevsky

If sadness is dough, happiness is bread.

The former is cold and damp and heavy and malleable. It causes harm if consumed without caution, goes bad if not used quickly, and doesn’t store very well.

The latter is warm and fresh and light and firm. It complements and nourishes; its absence is always felt.

Each must be made anew again and again.

Without the former, the latter cannot be. The process is proven—it is not to be rushed. Nature has refined the recipe and regimen

Though different—like water and ice—elementally they are one and the same.

The ice cannot melt without the heat.

The dough cannot rise without the work.

Both metamorphose into something vital by forces adjacent and beyond.

The dance is elegant: sometimes in suspense, other times incomplete, forever in progress.

We are naturally impatient to bake our bread without the mess of the dough, to reach the end without delay.

However, it is an incontrovertible rule of progress that it comes by passing through some stages of instability—towards something unknown, something new.¹

Life is a kind of sowing and the final harvest has not yet come.

Trust the timeless process.

Reap the wheat, knead the dough, and bake the bread.

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Per my about page, White Noise is a work of experimentation. I view it as a sort of thinking aloud, a stress testing of my nascent ideas. Through it, I hope to sharpen my opinions against the whetstone of other people’s feedback, commentary, and input.

If you want to discuss any of the ideas or musings mentioned above or have any books, papers, or links that you think would be interesting to share on a future edition of White Noise, please reach out to me by replying to this email or following me on Twitter X.

With sincere gratitude,

Tom

1. An homage to the prayer of Teilhard de Chardin