Stuff

It's Been A While

For the past few months, possibly even years, I have been writing posts on my LinkedIn account. Why? Because I wanted to write to a specific audience I suppose. Business people. Colleagues, people I know, about things I want to share. With them. Perhaps I wanted an audience. Full stop. I know writing is something I enjoy doing. It's something that brings out thoughts and feelings and deposits them on the page and it's a way to form my ideas. I read a lot. It's part of the cycle I imagine. To complete the reading and the thinking. I also am very freeform. I am interested in so many things it's hard to know what I am a master of. I have just been to the space where they honor individuals and organisations with the Nobel Peace Prize. It's in Oslo. It's pretty small compared, I imagine, to the HQ for NATO. Overheard on a trip round the fjords a man said, 'Norway is the third largest exporter of weapons...' If that's true then it's kind of having one's cake and eating it isn't it? Feeding the animal that creates war and then praising those who try to make peace. Isn't that the truth though? There is no easy path forwards, it's fraught with madness. There is no sanity anywhere just shades of madness. Just the least mad person / culture / organisation? We have descended into a craziness now. Where nothing is what it seems and everyone is trying to find the exit. There is no way out. We have to stay within and stay clear. Stay focused on the mountaintop and keep ascending. The road is littered with rocks that are thrown as you try to pass. There's nothing to say about that. Except don't throw rocks along the way. Just don't throw rocks. Stay firm. Everyone is just trying to get along and the road is narrow. Just face forward. Walk. Walk. Walk. You will get blown about along the way. That's how you know you are reaching the summit. There are a lot of crosswinds at altitude until you break through that is. Hopefully.

From The Heart

OK F. Scott, here goes.

Writing something you care about is quite an endeavour - it takes more will than you might imagine. For what do we care about? As we breathe in and out how do we understand our worlds - and what makes us care anyway?

Here are some of the things I care about - people's chances in life - the idea and ideal that people can discover at any moment in their life, in their spirit, in their heart something that sets their very soul alight. That at some point something can inspire anyone to do anything to make their mark. Of course we all hope for everyone's sake that that something will be good for more people and for society and for the human race in general - or at least do no real harm...but who is to say?

A radical is a radical is a radical. Free radicals set off chain reactions in our biochemistry that cannot be reversed. But we all have the potential to be free radicals in a world which connects us irreversibly. We are all more potent than any of the officials had ever imagined. We are all omnipresent now. Of course there are still some barricades that keep us in - language, creativity, originality, talent, points of view...but here's the bind - all the while we allow the point of view out there to colour our in here - we are simply puppets...of course we are influenced by everything and everyone - and the more creative the more porous one is - the harder it is to take a slice of life and believe that deeply. The more impossible it is to separate from the whole - we are one - we can see and have compassion for the other's views even if they are offensive to our very core. We are all grappling with the incomprehensible. We are all looking for a few clues that will unlock the future - the path to somewhere better - somewhere cleaner, somewhere less fraught with everyone else's shit.

I also care a lot about how people feel - other people's hearts and their own insecurities. I feel so much for others some days it hurts beyond words. Where others can ignore I have to fight hard to overlook almost anything. I can see all the details in even the most inconsequential exchanges and my mind replays endlessly like some kind of out of control catchup channel - searching for the inner meaning - the metameaning - onrepeat. When Justin Bieber says he can't do the meet and greets anymore because he can't handle the fans' energy - I get it. Anyone watching JB carefully can see his physical fluidity and can see how others' expectations will easily disturb that. He's a child. Forget all the hype. He's a maturing boy on fast forward and I get it. It's no coincidence his album is called Purpose. When the mild person gets pushed to one side innocently by the more confident it bites into me.

If you look at the size of Gandhi it would be easy to see him as physically small. So is a bullet. Packed full - energy concentrate. Tearing through the atmosphere making its mark.

I care about love. So much. All day long and all night long. I care every moment about how we create ways, mechanisms, systems, infrastructures, technologies that deliver that - not the sloppy, romantic, sentimental kind of love - not the desperate kind - not the cloying, restrictive love that dominates and controls, not the love that leaves us feeling worse - not the love of country, not the love of God, nor the love of self - the love that is whole - gifted - beautiful - outrageously demonstrative and lightly tip toeing across the dancefloor - the love that lights up and burns away the rotten and dead life that dulls us, day by day. I zing sometimes when I hear a song, see a sight, catch a breath, when my mind can't process all the data flowing through my heart - when my hands can't reach enough keys to type fast enough to capture and share the feelings in any meaningful way...when I hate insignificance and lack of decency - when people don't have the courage that they were born with...it takes courage to enter that birth canal and to take that first breath.

I care about leadership. We have to gather our wits together now - we can't watch like innocent bystanders whilst others dictate who we are and how we live. We can't Amazone out while they put down rules and regulations and narrow the weave of the fabric that surrounds us. A rising tide raises all boats - we have to raise up for all - not allow the less well connected to sink down into the mud and be washed away downstream and shrug...this is not survival of the fittest - be careful you may not want to be beached up with only the fittest - you may find yourself in their sights one day. That's the trouble with the strong beating up on the weakest - there's always someone stronger, there are always bigger weapons, more drones, more technological warfare - walls beget walls D. We don't want to live in that world. Our backs will soon be against those walls and that's no life at all. There is still plenty of time to reverse this and to pull back from the brink. So this is what I care about as business leaders start to take the place of political leaders - let's make sure it's not bad business - let's get just the right kind of leadership in place.

I am

I am a brick wall
I am a velvet glove
I am a quiet word
And a loud bang
I am a gentle breeze
A violent storm
I am the unknown
And the all too familiar
I am a dull thud
And a gossamer thread
I am the carrot 
And the stick
A gentle prod
And a poke in the eye
I am in your face
And behind your back
I am a world away
In your street

I am change
And I am here. 

Narratives of Easter

We each live with the past. Every year when we celebrate a season or a pagan feast or a religious festival we become part of something created long ago. Each festival was created for a reason. Be it a genuine feeling of gratitude that the harvest did happen or a sense of communal experience that brought people together for a short time breaking the monotony from the fields or the grind of the workplace. These original events had meaning and although today, millennia later, that meaning feels more distant and perhaps less relevant to us sometimes the relevance can creep up on you.

A fresh perspective on Easter now feels valuable and important to me - the sense of something passing - a life that is over and a new beginning - feels exhilarating. A wonderful moment to mourn and to re-engage. To release what was there and what is to come. Too often we feel that we are somehow fixed, nailed to a cross, with a burden to bear and that is our burden alone. 

Yet one of the ancient stories tells us that when something is too heavy to bear, the burden too great we will be released. Even if you do not believe in a ritual or the Son of God or the story of Easter as told by the ancients - something still rings true within the narrative. We are not beasts of burden born to suffer. We are brilliance and can change and challenge and review and restore. We can change our lives every moment and if it feels we can't then that feeling needs to be explored - as it is false. That deep, dark feeling can be enjoyed for a few moments, then lifted and lightened until it passes over and you are reborn in a new way - with fresh perspective - ready to launch a new day and feel the fresh air and the breezes of new life caress your face once again.

Easter is a wonderful point in the calendar and gives us a chance to regroup and refocus our attention - ready to move on again in new ways with new friends and new perspectives.

Happy Easter to all. xx

 

PS I am so sorry to see the atrocities and so helpless to know what to say or to do - so I blog. 

On Making Peace and Other Short Stories

Global peace is quite tricky at the moment. We are in a bit of a bind. Everyone shouting at everyone - not knowing which way to turn. Bombs around every corner and entering every home. The West at odds with the Middle East and the Far East and Eastern Europe. What's to be done? Look up. 

If you stand straight and look up it's impossible to be downcast. Even if the clouds cover every inch of sky. Never give in. But that doesn't mean fight back - that's for others who know what they are doing - possibly. 

If you see a stranger that comes from a different faith, if someone says an eye for an eye - just listen - be present - but listen to your own heart. There's nothing else to do. The heart knows the truth. The mind struggles for logic, a sensible approach. But that's not likely - sense will not prevail. Only love can prevail. Only love can speak in times of terror and desperation. Only love will help someone down from the ledge, stop a fight, bring animosity to a close. 

There's no other way - we can't fight fire with fire because we just get fire. I don't know military - I don't understand national security. I can only walk the streets and do my best to stay sane and to think straight. Treat others as you find them. Those you find that don't seem quite your cup of tea - let them be. Just be yourself and stand for your own beliefs and deal with life one beautiful moment at a time. National pride can only take you so far before it turns into aggression or self righteousness. Something caused this hatred and that something needs love. As unlikely as that might seem and as distant a star as that might appear.

Deal with bullies. Stop aggression with love and kindness every moment. When it's hard just try harder. 

 

Be The Change

Those three little words almost as famous as the other three little words we all long to say and hear. 

Why I wonder did Gandhi say those words? Here's an idea. Any basic passing interest in psychology will tell you that you can't change other people. Other people may or may not change. So the only person you can change is you. I am the only person I can change. I can change my habits, my perspectives, my lifestyle, my location, my friends, my library, my name - today I can change almost anything even my gender. 

How do I go about making those changes? By a process of realisation perhaps. A process of feeling the pain of banging my head against a wall until I can do it no more. A realisation that my head is worth more than that. So either I stop the banging or I change the wall or both? 

That's when MG's words kick in. Be the change you want to see in the world. 

If I can't change the world but I can be the change I want to see then I have to take a long hard look into that and enquire deeply.

I want every child to have the opportunity to live in a caring and loving world. So I need to show love and care to all the children I come into contact with.

I want every business to behave ethically and in an enlightened way - so that includes me too. 

I want people to think maturely about themselves as citizens and shoulder more responsibility of community initiatives not only give big donations to major high profile charities - so I cannot give donations to big high profile charities and must shoulder my responsibility as a citizen.

I want people to laugh and joke and have fun - that includes me.

I want a lighter attitude towards education and exam results - so I must show a lighter attitude to those too...

The funny thing is as I start to take back control of my own life and my own ideals I feel better - the burden of carrying an imaginary load of other people's ideas, constraints and issues starts to lift and the ultimate prize shows itself. Humility. No matter how important I think I am - how important I could ever become - I am still only me - only a tiny fragment in the aeons of history and future time-space.

That is a refreshing realisation indeed.

Related articles

Original edition of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi now in digital form

Planning To Head Off Into The Unknown?

I met a man who wants to do something big, important, grand in the art world. He has connections and skills and enthusiasm. He is established in his field. We spoke for about 90 minutes - he spoke for about 80 of them. He gushed about the opportunity and the need - he spoke of his desire to give back, to contribute - he went hither and thither, circled around and around. He assured me of his serious intent and determination to make this thing come alive. 

We parted. 

What worries me is the plan.

The endeavour will cost a significant amount of money. It will be risky. It involves a great number of 'stakeholders' and investors. But that doesn't worry me. 

What worries me is the plan.

When I was young and innocent I would not have been worried by such things. I would have been whipped up into the excitement. But now I am older and hopefully wiser these things do worry me.

The weakest plan is often better than the grandest idea. Committing the idea to paper and committing the idea to numbers is crucial. That's where two heads are so much better than one. 

It's virtually impossible to commit your own idea to plan - you gush, you deviate, you wander - just like he did the other day.

So if you want to break new ground - make sure you have a partner in the planning part of it - it takes time - it takes focus - it takes painful pursuit - ideas are tricky to nail. Questions are hard to answer.

But when that idea finally shines brightly off the page and when you see another's eyes light up over your idea - it will be worth the trouble. 

Too many brilliant creatives have notebooks full of ramblings - unfinished thoughts, diagrams, sketches, books unwritten, plans unlaid...

I must thank Martin Stahel for patiently working through the planning phase with me on a new project - it's essential to any venture and something that's hugely enjoyable too.

Get the plan right and the rest becomes a whole lot less frightening.

 

Getting the Basics Right - for the Millennials

You rarely get the chance to get the basics right. Mostly you rush right into doing the bits you feel most comfortable with. Getting the sales flow going - after all no business / no cash / no sleep. We all need to sleep right. 

Trouble is after you have called all those prospects and told them about your availability, after you have re-quoted a couple of times and shaved your pricing down to the wire often you are still left scratching your head and wondering where all the business is?

So you hunt around for another way forward - you try to beat your competition - you take a look at their customers, their products, their ideas and you start the snatch and grab phase. Copy that, undercut the other. Yuk.

Of course sales is critical - a strong sales process is fundamental to anyone's business...but it's only part of the story. 

You have to have a brand to deliver in today's world. Not just a lot of customers. You have to stand for something. You have to be able to entertain, educate, fascinate the world with you and your services, with your backstory and your future vision.

I watched the Finale of Madmen (SPOILERS ALERT) which was set in 1971. Back then Coca Cola was already ruling the waves, the airwaves, with its brand - and in some ways it was their heyday - when people took notice of them and believed in them.

This is only going to become more important as the Millennials take over - they want meaning even more - there's too much choice in every sector - meaning is what sets us apart.

See Deloitte's report if you don't believe me.

I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony too...all those years on - it's still pretty relevant.

A Floppy Concept - Community

'Community' is a very floppy kind of concept - just when you think you have it propped up nicely on the sofa - it falls over and spreads out across the rug.

It's so easy to forget that we all have multiple personalities, many functions, hats, worlds we inhabit. Over the past few days I have sat in meetings in a variety of different roles. It never ceases to amaze me in this connected world how so many have 'locked in syndrome'. Some sort of narrow thought that ways of being are only one dimensional. That you can be one way in one situation and another way in another situation.

Sometimes worlds collide. So, for example, you may be a loyal customer spending significant sums on coffee at a particular store and then you think of the school fundraiser you have been asked to handle - what could be more natural than to ask that local store manager for a little support? But hey, you crossed the invisible line from 'person who spends money and receives outstanding customer satisfaction' to - to 'someone touting their kid's school' - the deal broke / the contract split - and now the macchiato isn't so frothy anymore.

Somewhere we forgot about the 'whole person' and we bought into the 'fake personality'. The fakery that exists in job titles, status displays of wealth, positions of power, physical posturing, glossy manes. The whole person is far better to be and to be around. 

The coffee store owner has to see real people in his store - not coffee drinkers - we have to see a real person running the store - not a provider of hot delicious beverages.

So the dilemma is obvious - should we all stay tight shut in our boxes - shoppers remain firmly in the shopping seat and fundraising for community stays in its own narrow corridor - or should we re-examine how we see each other? 

So what about if the store manager's team is raising funds for Breasts For Life or some other charity and they have a Giving Page - is it OK for them to ask their loyal customers for support? Can they cross the line between serving to sharing? You can't walk up the high street anymore without being offered numerous opportunities to save something or other - charity walks the high streets daily fundraising...is that OK?

As we all know the new(ish) brand dimension is community - I sat through a world brand talking community the other day for well over 3 hours...in truth they weren't really talking 'community' in any meaningful way. 

The real point of this blog is that there are no lines anymore - whether we like it or not - we all have multi-dimensions and we are all intricately woven - so being awkward, rude in one scenario is going to leak into another just when you least expect it. 

That is a hard call - how do you stay true to your first principles all the time?

T'was ever thus - when we used to live in villages it was easier to understand - you had a fixed group of people and they got to know you - the whole of your life - warts and all - you understood and expected to present a consistent face to the community - the whole person - in this global village it's easy to think new rules apply - they don't - reputations traverse the world now - anonymity didn't exist in the village and it doesn't exist in the global village.

Global citizenship demands a lot of each of us now - just ask Sepp.

 

Agencies & Clients - the best are inseparable

There's a quality to life that is hard to define. People use the word quality all over the place. I even sat through a presentation recently where quality was one of the three key words used to define a place. I ask you. High quality - low quality - fine quality - raw quality - what sort of quality? Quality isn't the end of the line, it's merely the starting point for exploration.

It's like the word style. Lifestyle is used all over the place and we are none the wiser. Sure it implies something that is beyond reach for most of us. It's implied that it's glossy and aspirational - but that's usually just the paper and photography that is used to portray it in 2D. Style is another horizontal kind of word that needs verticals to make sense, to root it in something meaningful. Challenging style, feminine style, even then it needs more detail...more imagery, more subtlety.

Fun - another horizontal word - his kind of fun is not my kind of fun. If, as an ad agency, you have to portray fun - you have to define fun more rigorously.

Too often we don't push clients hard enough or far enough. We go along. We smile and enjoy the ride. An agency's role is not to flatter and make the client feel important. They are important. 

An agency's role is often to point out the bleedin' obvious. Your brand is shot to bits. It's dull. It's boring. It's meaningless. It's aloof. It's slack. It's confused. 

The agency's role is often to point out the thing that is staring you in the face but you haven't seen - the one word that makes the difference - the angle - the special something that can drive you home. An agency's role is to guide, encourage and direct the client further out into the future than they would get if left alone. 

To get them to walk on the coals of the marketplace and to brave the storms of the economic landscape. No one wants to be brilliant really - they want the idea of brilliance, they want the plaudits, they want the rewards, but no-one really wants the trauma. That is the role of the agency - to push the client to the ends of what is reasonable and to demand they deliver on the promises that the brand has made or is destined to make.

To be relentless and fearless - to believe in the opportunities and extraordinary capability of the client and their workforce to outrun the mediocre and to outpace the ordinary.

If, as once was said, "The world moves out of the way for those who know where they are headed," then the agency's work is to show the way, to clear some of the path and to beat the drum.

The client's role is to push all resistance to the back of the boardroom and to question - to question honestly and truthfully - to feel their way forward along the darkened tunnels of new frontiers and to rejoice in the new shared worlds that creativity, imagination and tough determination can build.

Agency and clients - the best are inseparable. 

 

Start with Today

I meet business owners who want more from their businesses...more from their staff...more from their suppliers...more from their customers...and ultimately more from...themselves.

They want better results - financial - cashflow and profit - better customers - to allow them to do their best work...better staff commitment and motivation - they want better recognition for their efforts, better prices from their suppliers.

Fewer people recognise what they already have. The staff commitment they already have. The prices they already have. The clients they already have. The situation they already have.

Sometimes the answers to more are here and now. We're all the same really - pushing for the more whilst forgetting about the now.

So let's pause for a moment and change that.

Name your best three suppliers. Why they are great. What sets them apart? What do they currently do that you are delighted about?

Same with staff...same with clients...same with cash.

Sure there is always more to strive for - that's the fun of it all. But not at the expense of now. 

Today's a pretty day - can't be bettered.

So stop and stare at your life exactly the way it is and why it already works so well - bring towards you more of what you love and what you have already achieved.

It'll be a lot more than you realise. I guarantee.

Gifts, Free Services and Paid Work

Are you giving something away or are you charging for it?

A gift is profoundly different from a professional service. 

We can't confuse one with the other.

Kudos for one is very different from another.

Sustainability for one is very different from another.

There are too many people giving away too much time and talent rather than charging for it.

There are too many people charging too much for time and talent rather than giving it for free.

But which is which?

Is extraordinary customer satisfaction in the gift economy or the real economy?

Is caring for children and family in the gift economy or the real economy?

Are student unpaid internships opportunities or exploitation?

We are in a time of flux and most people are trying to re-organise their values, downsizing, upcycling, shapeshifting to a happier time when you work to live, not live to work. 

Children want parents who are present not zombies who are the waking dead, families want to see each other and share their time without the ever present din and distraction of mobile phones and other tech apparatus interfering...we yearn for more time, more freedom yet we buy more stuff to distract us and make the debt mountain higher...demanding more time spent earning it and it goes on and on...

So it seems to me if you are thinking about giving time and talent away then you should be thinking about why you are doing that? What's in it for you? Here are a few questions worth considering:

1    What's the exchange - giving time to care for your children is a pleasure, a duty and ultimately gives you a clear conscience later on that you have given them enough to happily make their way in the world independently. Volunteering in a community organisation gives you the chance to meet new people, do things you would never get the chance to do otherwise, a sense of security that you are making a difference and self satisfaction. Unpaid overtime gives you a sense of completion, allows you to spend the right amount of time on something, gives you control over your workload, a sense of loyalty?

2    How long will this go on for? - 1 month, 3 months, until you get bored, until you have achieved some specific outcome, forever?

3    What do you expect emotionally - respect, challenge, creative outlet, peace of mind, fun, excitement, love?

4    Where could you achieve these same outcomes as a paid for activity? Who would pay you to do what you are currently doing for free? 

5    How could you transfer some of these new skills to paid for services? How could you work in new ways, make new connections, deliver different value with these talents and expertise?

6    What would you have to give up if you got paid for the work? Freedom, control, self esteem?

Now decide to re-evaluate your gifting on a regular basis and change according to circumstances. The new world won't be as clear cut as the old world - in any way shape or form...we will have to renegotiate everything including our relationship with money and work.

The only thing that's really important is clarity. Think clearly.

 

 

The Story You're Telling

As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII - William Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

There's no getting away from it - there's only making the most of it. 

Telling the story you want to tell, playing the part you want to play, adapting to the age and the times in which you live.

Too much time is spent on the edges of life - skirting around the key themes. 

March forth instead - who are you? What is your character? What part are you playing? Why? Who is in your play? 

Who do you want in your play? Cast for characters, cast for roles, cast for the handsome male lead or the funny, 

entertaining wit - cast widely - cast liberally. What is your story missing - often it's the happily ever after part,  

but you are still in the middle of it - so it can't be happily ever after yet...there's still the struggle, the lions to tame, the dragons to slay...stay focused.

We are not yet in the last stages of our lives - we are all somewhere earlier in the plot sequence - how thrilling.

Today my character is waiting for more direction, for the story to unfold - today she is sitting on set waiting for new 

scripts to arrive - for the dialogue to move forward - there's some pretty interesting potential in the storylines - but they are still yet to unfold...

Oh must dash - client meeting - about press strategy. 

Outside of The Comfort Zone

Easy said - 'oh push outside of your comfort zone they say' - 'stretch the envelope' or is it push the envelope? 'Just go for it! Never fear.' 'Fortune favours the brave'. They urge you to take centre stage...

The accompanying feelings are less courageous - weak legs, stomach knots, churning, anxiety, feeling faint, feeling alone, feeling isolated, only you know the real dangers, weakness, hands shaking, vulnerability, foetal position, rocking body forwards / backwards...cold / hot / cold...dry mouth...the desire, strong, to turn back, to go back and relax into the comfort zone and stay there - satisfied, happy, contented...ready to knit and watch the X Factor or any other 'reality' show where someone else is going to fail - anyone else but you, me...

Name the fears, line them up and shake their hands. Do anything to get them out into the clear light of day. Watch them blink in the sunshine and listen to them one by one. 

'You will lose money' - says one, 'you will lose credibility' - says another, 'you will lose face - you will lose time - patience - friends - lovers - you will lose everything you have ever worked for your entire whole life' - they shout out. They smirk and nod and wink at each other. Each ready to impress the next in line. 

Slowly as you sit and watch - someone enters from the side - onto the stage - quite slowly and in the mists - 'have a go', she says...'so what if you fail', 'so what if things don't go as planned', 'so what - what if they go better', 'what if they outdo your highest dreams', 'what if you succeed?' 'what then', she says...the hopes line up - shy at first and then pushed on by each other they speak up - they speak out - they laugh and cajole you, me...

No one has the answer, we don't know what tomorrow will bring - each decision births an endless array of possible outcomes - an infinite range of futures. 

We have voices in our heads and voices amongst our friends who tell us things and we try to make sense of it all and to move forward. We try to take decisions based on the facts... we mitigate disaster and we try to avoid uncertainty. 

So I sit in a chair all my life and knit the longest scarf whilst watching one reality show after another and then when the time comes to shuffle off this mortal coil I can say 'I was comfortable' - I stayed safe.

Is that what human life is for? 

 

 

Amidst the troubles find the love - search out the love

An excerpt from Oscar Wilde's De Profundis

"I remember talking once on this subject to one of the most beautiful personalities I have ever known: a woman, whose sympathy and noble kindness to me, both before and since the tragedy of my imprisonment, have been beyond power and description; one who has really assisted me, though she does not know it, to bear the burden of my troubles more than any one else in the whole world has, and all through the mere fact of her existence, through her being what she is—partly an ideal and partly an influence: a suggestion of what one might become as well as a real help towards becoming it; a soul that renders the common air sweet, and makes what is spiritual seem as simple and natural as sunlight or the sea: one for whom beauty and sorrow walk hand in hand, and have the same message. On the occasion of which I am thinking I recall distinctly how I said to her that there was enough suffering in one narrow London lane to show that God did not love man, and that wherever there was any sorrow, though but that of a child, in some little garden weeping over a fault that it had or had not committed, the whole face of creation was completely marred.  I was entirely wrong. She told me so, but I could not believe her. I was not in the sphere in which such belief was to be attained to. Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world. I cannot conceive of any other explanation. I am convinced that there is no other, and that if the world has indeed, as I have said, been built of sorrow, it has been built by the hands of love, because in no other way could the soul of man, for whom the world was made, reach the full stature of its perfection. Pleasure for the beautiful body, but pain for the beautiful soul."