What I found in Tintern Abbey

the still sad music of humanity

For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue ...

Knowing that Nature never did betray
The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
Is full of blessings.

-- William Wordsworth, "Tintern Abbey"

An announcement:

While I will still be writing in this space, I will be taking a hiatus from writing in my local paper, The Chowan Herald. If you’re one of my local friends and don’t see my column for a while, the absence is not due to health or a move. Rather, it is more a consequence of several recent discussions that have, well, left marks of deep sadness.

I have tried to write with truth, justice, and a wide-open sense of goodness and beauty. It seems that for a while, a newspaper column may not be the place for that.

To continue with Wordsworth:

There are spots of time,
[which in memory can restore to us the power to create,
at moments when we are]
… depressed
By false opinion and contentious thought,
Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight,
In trivial occupations, and the round
of ordinary intercourse …

This efficacious spirit lurks
among those passages of life that give
Profoundest knowledge to what point, and how
The mind is lord and master —
outward sense
The obedient servant of her will.

— Prelude, Book 9