Smarts come in all sorts of sizes. You have street smarts, pet smarts, and mart smarts. Everything there is to know about has a higher level we deem “smart” to know.

Feelings wear all sorts of disguises. We have feelings from our hands, head, and gut. All sorts of feelings we may never be able to explain, as they are better off experienced. Thoughts may cloud our feelings, as much as a bad day can spoil the scenery, or pain can diminish pleasure.

What then is made of the smarts for the feels? Some say it is emotional intelligence, but what is the difference between emotional smarts and emotional stupidities? The answer lies in how it makes others feel, rather than the universal constants of truth. Someone’s entire perspective is a truth, and it often lives in their feelings. It is the gate that denies exit or entry from the brain. Nothing gets through our ego without being observed first.

The smartest smarts of all the smarts is survival, yet survival is not how we want to feel. Our survival instincts drive us down narrow paths. We wouldn’t need to pigeon-hole ourselves if we wanted to feel good. We would hope that the good pulls us to it (and the bad is repelled from us like a bad odor.)

We want to feel good at the end of the day, at the start, and the middle. We always want to feel good, so of course it is somewhere around waiting for us behind survival. Why else would we press on?