A Deep Longing

Embracing Romanticism

Who has not felt that pervading sense that something is missing. That something was lost, and we now live in a world bereft of a certain beauty and vitality. Who has not found himself wishing he lived in a nobler age.

It can be hard to be a romantic in today’s world.

Our society often feels so lifeless, so empty, so bleak, that it’s painful to imagine how much better things could be, how much better things once were. It’s painful to imagine the glories of the past or hope too much for the future. It’s painful to know you will never know the worlds you read about and dreamt about in your youth. We live in dark times.

But angst changes nothing. So, what to do?

You can do what most do, which is nothing. You can live your life in a state of melancholy romanticism, always unhappy with your own time and place. Eventually, this will turn into depression. And many do live this way. Countless young romantics have ended up jaded, bitter adults. And it is hard to judge them too much for this. The higher one’s ideals and the higher ones’s sense of beauty, the more violently one can be crushed by the dark reality of our age.

But for us this cannot be the way forward. We cannot live with our heads in the clouds, in fantasy, and we certainly cannot waste our lives in despair. We were born for the present moment even if we do not understand why, and we must live in the here and now.

I myself tend to be a romantic and an idealist. I often see how the world “should be” rather than how it is and this is both a blessing and a curse. It means that I can very easily fall into despondency and that I can struggle to see the good in things that fall short of the ideal. I often want to achieve things that appear unrealistic. I often become far too frustrated with the world and the people in it. But on the other hand, that sense of longing is what inspires me more than anything else and what has enabled me to do certain things that would have been too daunting without a sense of adventure.

It could be said that for anything of beauty and honor to be achieved a deep, painful longing is a prerequisite. The human soul is not inspired by comfort or by complacency, we are inspired by the knowledge that we have fallen short of something, that we were meant for more. We hear of the great deeds of our forebears and feel duty-bound to try and match them. And so it may be that without this sense of longing, we would achieve nothing. Our sense of romanticism may be what inspires all great men and women to reach for something higher.

So if you are a romantic- good! You are uniquely suited for this present age of darkness and ugliness. Others may not care what the world once was, they may not dream of what it could be again, or they may even prefer the ugliness of our age. But if you long for something greater, then you are exactly what the world sorely needs. You should not feel that you are so different from those that came before you. The great men and women that have changed the world all experienced the same deep longing, went through the same trials, and overcame the same fears. The greatest stories involve the greatest tragedies and the greatest despairs. You are not alone.

A deep sense of longing perfectly reflects the true purpose of man- our purpose to be “fruitful and multiply”, to take “dominion of the world”. Ordering the world is Man’s original purpose. Our ability to sub-create is what makes us creatures made in “God’s image”. It is telling that the Biblical story of the creation of man places our origin not in a wilderness, but in a garden. From the beginning it was our role to tend, guide, and mold the world that God gave us.

Adam was tasked with naming the animals in Eden. We can understand this to more broadly mean that we are tasked with taking the material things of this world and ordering them and directing them towards something higher. By giving something a “name” we ennoble it and give it meaning. We take what is, see what could be, and strive to mold our reality towards that ideal. We are here to master the world. This is not a task suited for those lacking high ideals and a romantic spirit.

Saint Augustine once said, "To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement."

I believe this quote perfectly describes how to “cure” that longing that so many of us experience. The only way out is through- that is, rather than wallowing in our angst, we will only discover what we are missing by totally giving ourselves to the pursuit of what is highest. The only path to fulfillment is the one God has laid out for you.

Whatever it is you long for, that thing that you so desperately wish you could find, that may be precisely the thing that God put you in this world to discover, or to do, or to create. There is a unique piece of the greater human story that God gave to you, and you alone. It is a secret He and you share but you must bring it into being. Artists, warriors, poets, emperors, farmers, monks, no matter what your role in the world there is a story that God put you here to tell. You can live a live of adventure and romance and deep meaning. You can achieve virtue and learn to truly love God and your neighbor.

So do not let go of your romanticism, rather, hold on tighter. Make your longing into reality. That is the only way you will ever fill that void in your soul. That void is God telling you that the world is broken- but you can participate in making it whole again. And while it is not in our power to heal the world completely, we can all do our small part, and that is enough.

I’ll leave you with this short video from one of my favorite creators, Asha Logos (who in fact has just joined Substack, be sure to subscribe to his newsletter). I think it complements what I’ve written here well. We must be “aristocrats of the soul”. We must be romantics. We must do something noble with these lives we’ve been given.

God bless.