We need to find beauty in everything

He’s been called a mad poet, an eccentric painter, and a simplistic philosopher, but to those who have had the privilege to read his original and abstract literary works, he is a genius, and a super cool dude who knew his shit. Who is this remarkable intellect? The one and only, William Blake, the sole inspiration that jumpstarted my journalistic career and opened my world to seek a deeper meaning to everything.

For Blake, the only life that mattered was the life of the mind, the flourishing of the imagination, and visions of paradise. What he saw, wrote, and felt, were more real than the trees we see and the people we meet; it is not what we see that is important, it’s how we see it. Blake was aware of all the natural beauties of the world, and he pushed me to actually see the evening star, the sunrise, the importance of laughter from the heart, and most importantly, the eternal feeling of hope that things are much more beautiful then they seem.

“Pity would be no more,

If we did not make somebody Poor;

And Mercy no more could be,

If all were as happy as we;

And mutual fear brings peace,

Till the selfish loves increase;

Then Cruelty knits a snare,

And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,

And waters the ground with tears;

Then Humility takes its root

Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade

Of Mystery over his head;

And the Caterpillar and Fly

Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,

Ruddy and sweet to eat;

And the Raven his nest has made

In its thickest shade.

The Gods of the earth and sea,

Sought through Nature to find this Tree,

But their search was all in vain;

There grows one in the Human Brain.”

- The Human Abstract, Songs of Experience, William Blake

I refuse to think of our negative traits as our downfall; in an ideal world of universal happiness and genuine love, there would be no need for them. The human mind is what is keeping us back, because from it all unnatural values have been born, and continue to evolve.

We need to control our minds: what they think and where they take us.

We need our search not to be in vain.

We need to find beauty in everything.