Melancholy isn’t bad, nor is it a wholly negative feeling, the purpose of which might be to motivate the changing of one’s circumstances for the better. Rather, it’s an emotional admission of the inevitability & commonality of life’s less idealistic realities.

The melancholy sensation, unlike anger, does not entertain an obligation that life ought to feel easy or cheerful overall— or for that matter, objectively clear or linearly interpreted. It acknowledges the paradoxes of desire; for instance, wanting to feel secure but also to feel free. (Or, mayb...

Melancholy poems, songs, & other creative expressions mirror our own personal griefs in a yet impersonal, universal way. In a melancholy state, we neither feel upset about, singled out by, nor averse to these misfortunes, but dispassionately accepting of humanity’s and life’s true, middling natur...