Emotions, desires and sentiments are said to carry us away from the here and now, away from ourselves, unmooring us from our foundations. I experience my feelings differently.
My sentiments expose the missing pieces, the emptiness. What good is an expression without someone to feel it to, someone who hears, reads, considers, disagrees and must harken something back?
John Lennon in “Strawberry Fields Forever” sang “No one I think is my tree. I mean it must be high or low.” Lennon was grounded fully in those lyrics and music. Both nostalgic and immediate, he revealed himself and found a lonely soul, one without a loving half to take it all in and echo back.
No one in the world was more adored. No one had a better creative partner. Yet it wasn’t enough, not in his here and now. Soon after he met Yoko and that emptiness appeared to fill. Perhaps that’s all it takes. But the heart expresses itself in plaintive song, not quiet satisfaction. We yearn intentionally.