I don't know if it's negative projection but I swear negative actions and emotions trump positive ones. Maybe it's because pain is more basic, easier to relate to than happiness? Maybe it's because we learn more from the times we're in pain than the times we're in happiness? I suppose it makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. As a child discovering that when you touch something hot it hurts is more useful in the long run that discovering when you are with friends it is fun. Even something like feeling happiness with friends could be written off as purely an evolutionally carved survival tool. The more a species sticks together the more likely it is to survive (to a certain extent). Feeling lonely makes you sad, feeling like a part of something makes you happy.
Should understanding how something works or how something came to be or where something is going subtract from the beauty of it?
