More Than A Feeling

“It’s more than a feeling (more than a feeling)
When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling)
I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)” -Boston, “More Than A Feeling”

“That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.” -Shakespeare, Sonnet 73

My favorite definition of love comes from Saint Thomas Aquinas: “Love is to will the good of the other, as other.”

Love is more than a feeling that comes and goes like the wind. It is a decision. A choice. An act. A verb. You will something to happen. In the case of love, you are willing a good outcome for someone else. Not for what they can do for you. Just for simply being who they are.

One way to love is to make your art. To look deep inside, figure out what you’re passionate about and commit to expressing that passion with excellence and generosity throughout. When you do that, we as the audience are the grateful recipients of your will. Of your love. We are “consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.”