Mournful Question

Q Dear Lover of the Board [AKA. Wally III],

Why do train whistles at night always sound lonely and mournful? Not so in the daytime.

-Thomas the Train is Never Mournful

A Dear Thomas the Train is Never Mournful,

(I have heard this story second-hand, but have also personally experienced it) It all begins with Women's Conference, I think the real title is General Relief Society Meeting. I know kindof a funny place to start seeing I can only call you werf. Well if you read in the Ensign or watch the broadcast (My only options seeing that I am a male) you will find that all they talk about are positive uplifting things. They tell the sisters how wonderful they are and that they are doing performing their callings to the utmost. Picture now, a husband who wonders what his wife hears about at womens conference. While she is at the meetinghouse listening to the broadcast, he listens in. Speaker after speaker praises the women in general, attempts to lift their spirits, and basically tells them they are going to the Celestial kingdom (perhaps a little exaggeration, but not much). The husband is excited because he knows that his wife is the best wife in the world; he tries to praise her as often as he can, but he knows that this will be great for her to hear the church leaders telling her how good of a job she is doing. He wants to celebrate when she gets home, they can all celebrate what a wonderful wife and mother she is. The husband hears the car in the drive and goes to watch her walk in--oh no! She must have been in an accident, or something equally terrible because it looks like she is crying--it is a good thing the meeting was so wonderful he thinks, she will be able to handle a little stress after having such an uplifting meeting. Imagine his confusion as she comes in the doors wiping tears from her eyes, asking questions like "do you still love me?", and "am I a good mother?" and remarking "I need to be such a better person." Just the opposite is true for Priesthood meeting. We go to the meeting, get a flogging from every general authority, and we come away thinking "I could probably do something better in my life."
Now I bet you wonder what all this has to do with a mournful train whistle...here it is. Is the whistle physically different from Night to day? NO. Does the lack of sunlight cause the sound of the whistle to change at all? NO. So what is different? The idea is different. When it is dark we can no longer see all the landscape, trees, other people (unless they are independently lit), giving the feeling of being alone. Human beings are social creatures; we need our herd. Without such we become mournful, so naturally the train whistle sounding in the dark would sound mournful at night and not in the daytime.

Mournful

1.	feeling or expressing sorrow or grief; sorrowful; sad.

2.	of or pertaining to mourning for the dead.

3.	causing grief or lament: a mournful occasion.

4.	gloomy, somber, or dreary, as in appearance or character: mournful shadows.

Just like the differences in the people going to different meetings for the Church, if you go in already feeling that you are not doing enough, when they talk about how wonderful you are doing all you can think of is that "I am not there yet." While the men think "I'm all I could ever be and more" going in, when they are sternly rebuked it is tempered into their previous thinking, so they end up coming out thinking "I am doing really good right now, I wonder if I can help someone else who has those problems."
So you see that how we think about it, determines in large measure, what you are going to think about it.

The Mind is Amazing!

-Wally III [5]