December 2001

Celebrating life

The poet Shelley pronounces; Poets are the gigantic mirrors in which futurity casts its shadow over the present." This is a fantastic insight. I will allow myself to parapharse Shelley and say: "Poets are the gigantic mirrors in which the deepest human aspirations find expression and articulation." This is in harmony with another statement of Shelley: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of humanity."

There is perhaps no more subtle and ravishing expression of the celebration of life than that of William Blake's:

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in the wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

This is so simple and so mystical; and so magnificent in acknowledging our participation in the wonders of the becoming of the world. It was Blake also who said: "To the eye of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself." It would be impudent at this point not to quote John Keats: "I feel more and more every day, as my imagination strengthens."

These various poets, I mentioned, are a much better source for the sustenance of life and for its celebration than either philosophers or scientists. It is entirely strange: No rational argument can convince you to be positive towards life. Science cannot explain what celebrating is. It does not have the language for it. Add 'celebratory' to the idea of the cosmos and you receive one sense of the universe. Take away the sense of celebration and you dwell in a rather shabby universe.

True, science does not support the idea of the celebratory universe or of celebrating life. But it cannot deny it either. At best science must be mute about such matters. Furthermore, there are more things in heaven and on earth than scientists ever dreamt in their theories.

To think is to celebrate.
To be alive is to celebrate.
To be aware of one's human nature is to celebrate.
To reach out for God is to celebrate.
To dance under the stars is to celebrate.
So my friend, go and celebrate.
For it is in congruence with the ethos of the universe.

Henryk Skolimowski