Consider a non-committed "oh!"

         "I was in a relationship, now I am single."

A statement like that (even about one's self) evokes a mental picture. And passing through our practised cultural sensitivities, also a response. We may have been trained (by ourselves or external forces) to imagine a sad picture, a picture of loneliness. One response to the statement is "aw, sorry. What happened?" Another common one is "Freedom? Back to bachelor!" A minority of a response is a non-committed "oh!".

The sentence describes a flux: a movement from one state of being to another. And true to the Newton's first law of motion, if the inertial motion (or rest) has been broken it involves some sort of gradient. Uphill, downhill; accelerate, decelerate, doesn't it?

Gradient is often not free of judgement. The judgement coming from our vast personal experiences, discussions (first hand accounts, second and n-hand accounts), movies, books, websites, plays, songs, and perhaps a few other sources. From having being in a relationship to being single is downhill. View from the hill was great, complete with a lake. There is nothing to look forward at the foothill, only bushes. The journey itself involves sadness and unhappiness.

Our training helps us to be sensitive and understand others, help them in a small way. But when you are the one experiencing the flux, and want to deal with the situation, this training can go against you. Most of our training has a response of the first or second type. Sometimes in a sinusoidal form, going from "so sad" to "great" over a fixed or changing interval.

Can we consider a non-committed "oh!" when going through a flux? An extended non-committed "oh!". The point on the sine-wave that it crosses the axis? Look beyond the hill and the valley somewhere in the clouds? Gradient does not necessarily cause a change of speed, it can also just mean a change of direction at the same speed.