In speaking of our world’s future, I told someone recently that I was a hopeful romantic. I meant it as a paradoxical statement and not at all in the same way as “hopeless romantic”. I think hopeful doesn’t need a lot of ‘splainin but my use of romantic might.

Think of “romanticism” rather than “romance”. Does that bring to mind something created in the romantic era – circa 1798-1852? That’s the type of romantic I mean.

Romantic-era writers were wistful, quirky, deep, and a little bit dark if not broody. They wrote with a sense of melancholy, or even tragedy. They embodied an appreciation of nature, beauty, emotion, creativity, the senses, personalities, and moods.

Romanticism combines enlightenment and terror, but also beauty and disgust, like two sides of the same coin. The image above is by Caspar David Friedrich, painted around 1809, and titled Abbey among Oak Trees. There’s something captivating about it, yet also bleak! This is, to me, the embodiment of romanticism.

Romanticism isn’t just attributed to a certain era. It’s a perspective, a way of living in the world. It’s a perspective shared by many, in any given time in history. Including now. When I say I’m a hopeful romantic, that is to say…I’m a bit of an idealist, and a critic.

I believe there’s a silver lining to every cloud, but who’s to say that’s a good thing?