"I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going."   - Jim Valvano

Jimmy V was an NCAA basketball coach for North Carolina State who died of cancer in 1993. He was just 47 years old, likely most known today for that famous ESPY award acceptance speech he gave just weeks prior to his death. It's 11 and a half minutes you should watch. Even if you've seen it before. Jimmy V's punchline was always, "Don't give up. Don't ever give up!"

The man was known for his enthusiasm and emotion. He didn't have a stoic demeanor. ;)

He was an obvious extrovert. Stereotypical of his Italian heritage.

I'm neither Italian nor extroverted. Rather I'm an introvert who can often appear like an extrovert. I'm still trying to figure out how all that works. Personality, mind, thoughts - all that neurological stuff fascinates me.

Emotions are easy for me. Always have been. Like so many things that make up who and what I am, I lean into them.

I don't know if I cry every day, but I will likely cry more days than not.

I laugh daily.

It's not hard for me to get my emotions going. Mostly, I'm able to do that with ease. I'm even fairly proficient at reigning them in. Somewhat.

I was reading, thinking and doing a bit of writing over the holidays. As I ruminated about my own emotions I had a realization. I've never been prone to making decisions - certainly not big decisions - whenever emotions are really going.

I laugh whenever people claim they don't make "emotional decisions." Yes, you do. We all do. Well, maybe not if you're a psychopath. Or is it sociopath? Let's look up the difference 'cause I always get those confused.

Okay, here we go. This is from HealthyPlace.com -

Psychopathy can be thought of as a more severe form of sociopathy with more symptoms. Therefore, all psychopaths are sociopaths but sociopaths are not necessarily psychopaths.

According to the Society for the Study of Psychopathy, psychopath traits include:

Lack of guilt/remorse

Lack of empathy

Lack of deep emotional attachments

Narcissism

Superficial charm

Dishonesty

Manipulativeness

Reckless risk-taking

Psychopaths, for example, are far more likely to get in trouble with the law while sociopaths are much more likely to blend in with society.

The article says that 93% of psychopaths are in the criminal justice system. I suppose that should be a relief, but I worry about that 7 % still out there. And how do they know they're all accounted for? That's the really big question.

But let's hop out of this rabbit hole, back onto our topic of getting our emotions going.

I talking about this because I get sick of folks claiming "being emotional" is a downside. Clear language would help. What they mean is being overly emotional or being so emotional you're losing control. At least that's what I think they mean. But that's not what they say. Which is why I think Jimmy V's comments are so spot on.

Today I'm focused on the questions that fuel our emotions. I realize questions may not always be the impetus, but the more I think about it the more I'm convinced they often are at the heart of them.

Watching one of those true crime shows on the ID channel late one night the homicide detectives were talking about how hard it is to notify next of kin. It showed them approach the home of a mother whose daughter was found murdered. Her emotions sparked by such horrible news were obvious. She remarked, "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" It's a big question we've all asked when bad news comes.