Alan Watts talks about how we use positive and negative things to define us, either by our love or our opposition to them. If you hate something, it speaks about you as a person, it can serve as a guide to allow people to see who and what you are. I do have things that I dislike but I tend to just not talk about them publicly. I’m aware that they are projections of things within me, so I accept them and don’t attach myself to them.
Because when you cast out bread on the waters, you get back cake.
Who doesn’t like cake?
We attach ourselves to the things that we become. I believe in being positive and accepting of the beauty and horror of the world, hate doesn’t sit well with me anymore, it’s a crude rush akin to amphetamine but it doesn’t last at all. I feel very deeply that we should share the things that we love with other people and not disparage the things that other people love. Sure, there’s a place for critical analysis and insight, debate is invigorating and can lead to great insight. I believe happy people are seldom cruel and although I can be that way, it’s something that I don’t let past my boundary, I acknowledge it, learn something from it, observe it and let it move on. I use the good and the bad in my writing, as I do in my life. It is better to drink of deep grief than shallow pleasure, because if you cannot separate yourself from the pain of the world then at least you can learn from it.
Be kind to one another, share the things that make your soul sing with joy. You might be midwife to someone’s great passion, don’t expect thanks for it, but share with the world the best things in it and then your world can become it. It is not a weakness to show kindness, it is a strength because it’s easier to be angry and cruel than it is to be kind.
MB Blissett 