bluebird
Major Contributor
I see what you mean, Bruce, but if the afterlife is a place where we feel great joy, and I certainly hope it is, I don't think that means that we are not allowed to feel anger or sadness -- I think it's more that because we will be happy and with loved ones, we mostly just won't feel anger or sadness. As I said in my example, my love and joy will outweigh my anger, and I suspect the same would be true for most people. I don't think the afterlife is 100% pure joy all the time, especially for those newly arrived, who will still have feelings and reactions to whatever they went through in their lives. Any other souls in heaven would, I think, be understanding of that, and perhaps would be able to either absorb those feelings without harm to themselves or would not be affected by the feelings in any sort of negative way -- a kind of spiritual insulation.
The following isn't an exact correlation, as I don't view the newly arrived in the afterlife as children, but it's the closest situation which occurs to me. Suppose I have a toddler child who becomes upset about something, even if that something is just a small thing (like not getting a cookie when s/he wants one, for example), and s/he starts crying, etc. I would of course rather that my child not be upset, and I would do my best to soothe her/him, and I would probably be a bit perturbed, but I would not be angry or truly upset, or feel negative -- in part because I would know that the situation wasn't really harmful, and that my child would shortly feel better. In that same way, I think it likely that other souls in the afterlife would not be too strongly affected either, even more so as our anger/sadness would have nothing to do with them (in most cases).
The following isn't an exact correlation, as I don't view the newly arrived in the afterlife as children, but it's the closest situation which occurs to me. Suppose I have a toddler child who becomes upset about something, even if that something is just a small thing (like not getting a cookie when s/he wants one, for example), and s/he starts crying, etc. I would of course rather that my child not be upset, and I would do my best to soothe her/him, and I would probably be a bit perturbed, but I would not be angry or truly upset, or feel negative -- in part because I would know that the situation wasn't really harmful, and that my child would shortly feel better. In that same way, I think it likely that other souls in the afterlife would not be too strongly affected either, even more so as our anger/sadness would have nothing to do with them (in most cases).