I have lots of quotes from songs, poems and novels floating about in my head, probably taking up space that can be used for urgent matters such as costs, codes, and schedules. But every so often I read something that moves me suddenly and intensely. And the reason for this is that the words are both heartrendingly sad, and because they are direct and honest, very beautiful.
This is what happens when there is emotional resonance: We find beauty in sadness because the expression resonates with our human experience of loss, reflection, and empathy. If there is that resonance, you can’t avoid feeling it. There is no fakery. It’s like an arrow straight from the writer’s bow that flies to a precise target and hits it bang in the centre, with no deviations on its flight.
The truth, when you recognize it, finds an echo in yourself – literally, in your mind. It’s one human recognizing and vibrating with another human, through words or music.
Below are a few words that have touched countless people’s hearts. So few, but so moving. So honest, simple, and beautiful.
Source: US Library of Congress
“X The light has gone out of my life”
Would it make a difference to how this makes you feel, if you knew who had written it? Perhaps. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, wrote this in his diary when he was twenty-five years old.
Note the date of the entry – it was Valentine’s Day, 141 years ago. His young wife, Alice Hathaway Roosevelt (née Lee; born July 29, 1861) had died that day from undiagnosed kidney failure, two days after having given birth to their only child, a daughter.
This is the only diary entry he made on that day. He wrote a hard-lined “X” with his ink pen, seemingly in anger at what has been crossed out. Then, “…gone out of my life”. Roosevelt described Alice as sunshine, as his light, so that the light that had gone, was Alice. But for that moment, all he could express was his own grief. And, there is no period at the end of this sentence, as if he were not only distracted by his pain, but unable to foresee the end of it.
It’s not grand poetry or dramatic prose. It’s a simple metaphor. When he wrote it (the last word a bit smudged), he was just a heartbroken young man, and his future as one of the great presidents of the USA was far away.
Alice had accepted his marriage proposal four years earlier, also around Valentine’s Day, and then he had written in his diary: “I do not think ever a man loved a woman more than I love her. For a year and a quarter now, I have never (even when hunting), gone to sleep or woken up without thinking of her, and I doubt if an hour has passed that I have not thought of her.”
SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES 
I have lots of quotes from songs, poems and novels floating about in my head, probably taking up space that can be used for urgent matters such as costs, codes, and schedules. But every so often I read something that moves me suddenly and intensely. And the reason for this is that the words are both heartrendingly sad, and because they are direct and honest, very beautiful.
This is what happens when there is emotional resonance: We find beauty in sadness because the expression resonates with our human experience of loss, reflection, and empathy. If there is that resonance, you can’t avoid feeling it. There is no fakery. It’s like an arrow straight from the writer’s bow that flies to a precise target and hits it bang in the centre, with no deviations on its flight.
The truth, when you recognize it, finds an echo in yourself – literally, in your mind. It’s one human recognizing and vibrating with another human, through words or music.
Below are a few words that have touched countless people’s hearts. So few, but so moving. So honest, simple, and beautiful.
“X The light has gone out of my life”
Would it make a difference to how this makes you feel, if you knew who had written it? Perhaps. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, wrote this in his diary when he was twenty-five years old.
Note the date of the entry – it was Valentine’s Day, 141 years ago. His young wife, Alice Hathaway Roosevelt (née Lee; born July 29, 1861) had died that day from undiagnosed kidney failure, two days after having given birth to their only child, a daughter.
This is the only diary entry he made on that day. He wrote a hard-lined “X” with his ink pen, seemingly in anger at what has been crossed out. Then, “…gone out of my life”. Roosevelt described Alice as sunshine, as his light, so that the light that had gone, was Alice. But for that moment, all he could express was his own grief. And, there is no period at the end of this sentence, as if he were not only distracted by his pain, but unable to foresee the end of it.
It’s not grand poetry or dramatic prose. It’s a simple metaphor. When he wrote it (the last word a bit smudged), he was just a heartbroken young man, and his future as one of the great presidents of the USA was far away.
Alice had accepted his marriage proposal four years earlier, also around Valentine’s Day, and then he had written in his diary: “I do not think ever a man loved a woman more than I love her. For a year and a quarter now, I have never (even when hunting), gone to sleep or woken up without thinking of her, and I doubt if an hour has passed that I have not thought of her.”
Oh, the poor, poor man.
Share this: