Independently Speaking By Brent Olson

Sadness

I’m sorry about this week’s column. I’ve been reading the news and it seems to me that my best contribution to society might be to make people laugh. But, I’ve got a thing stuck in my head and I’m just going to have to write it out of there to make room for something a little more lighthearted. Truthfully, I almost missed my deadline for the first time in 30 years because I wanted to write a different column, but couldn’t.

Here goes.

Evagrius Ponticus was a monk in the fourth century. Don’t ask me how to pronounce his name; I had to look at it 12 times just to spell it correctly. His nickname was “Evagrius the Solitary.” He lived in the desert by himself, only ate one meal a day, didn’t eat fruit, meat, vegetables or anything cooked. Plus, he didn’t bathe. So, maybe he was a hermit by choice, or maybe it was just difficult to be his friend.

He was a big cheese in the theological world and one of his theological insights was eight deadly sins or, as he called them, eight terrible temptations. A couple centuries later, Pope Gregory took that idea, did some wordsmithing and ended up with the Seven Deadly Sins.

What was lost in those two centuries is that our boy, in his original list, included sorrow as one of the worst of sins. The word sorrow may not be exactly accurate. Keep in mind, this was written in Greek, translated into Latin, and after a thousand years or so made it into English. So perhaps what he meant by sorrow was sadness, despondency — something like that.

I didn’t see that one coming and it seems kind of harsh. How can just being sad be considered a sin? 

I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I did more reading than was required in confirmation class in 1970. Here’s what I found. One of the definitions of sin, as described by a lot of people smarter than me, is something that separates us from God.

Okay, now I get it. I’m as well acquainted with sorrow as many people and I have to admit it separates me from a lot of things. I’m not alone in that. If you want to stick to the Bible, there’s at least one whole book that deals with nothing but sadness and sorrow. It’s in Job 5, verse 7 where we get the quote, “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards.”

It’s hard, though, because sadness seems like it’s nobody’s business but your own, and you should be allowed to be as sad as you want, for as long as you want. But what this ancient philosopher thought was that sorrow was self-indulgent, that it ranked right up there with sloth and wrath as something to be avoided, that it was an actual affront to the Lord.

There’s a lot in this world that is cause for sorrow, so many things that bring me to sadness and despondency. I have to accept that, examine it, and then move on.

And next week, write about something else.

Copyright 2026 Brent Olson