Emotions.

Sometimes, I have them.  Its weird though, because when I say I have them, I mean I Have them.  They are a thing, tangible, noticeable, measurable. I can pick them up, turn them around in the hand of my mind and notice how they work.  I can even PUT THEM DOWN.  I can literally turn off some of my emotions, or at least that's how I think of it.  It doesn't actually happen that way, I just stop feeling them until its more convenient, but that's what it looks like.  Sometimes, the opposite happens, and I am had by my emotions.  It sounds dirty and graphic, but that's exactly how I feel when I come down off of the anger or mad happiness.  I am taken over, my reactions aren't mine.  I can look at them and be utterly mystified by them.  I sometimes feel like the Hulk, just less cool.

That's one of the things that always confuses me about people and their response to emotions.  It is a commonly held belief that emotional < rationality, which I don't agree with.  Emotions are stimuli responses.  Your friend dies, you mourn the loss.  You win the lottery, you are excited/pleased by the possibilities.  The break down comes when your emotions stop responding to rationality.  They are instead replaced by the reality you construct in your head based off of multiple errors in attributable.  Your friend does something stupid, scary stupid, and instead of rationalizing it, (people do stupid things sometimes, learning from them is important), it becomes this enduring, persistent attribute of that person.  They aren't flawed and human, they are a bad person and no amount of wanting to change will help them.
 I think the worst part of being rational is waking up and realizing that all of these bias, pitfalls, and arguments aren't just out in the world, assaulting us; They are in your own mind.  Sometimes, against all logic, you convince yourself that something is true.  Your don't actually take out your thoughts, one by one, and question them, that would take forever.  But sometime, infrequently, more often would be helpful, one of your foundation beliefs is knocked out from under you.  For a really really long time you'll sit there, on the ground surrounded by shards of thought and bits of belief, inspecting each and every one for that glimmering of logic.  But in the end, you sigh and stand, realizing that there isn't one shred of rational thought anywhere in the pile of broken hopes.  As you walk away from that pillar of false hope, its foundation sugar coated dreams and pure spun fantasy you take one, last bite to see how it tastes.  Its bitter friends.  Lies, false hope, and broken promises taste exactly like ash covered glass.