Thoughtful Thursday

“Love sees not with the eyes, but with the mind” – Helena, A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare

I adore this quote. It's the first thing I'd read of Shakespeare that stuck with me. I'd read some Shakespeare before, of course, and liked it (Sonnet 130 (I hope I got the right number) is one of my favourites, it's like the Anti-Sonnet “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun...”). But this, “Love sees not with the eyes...” intrigued me and, in some ways, and though cheesy as it may be, inspires me.
When I first read it, I had very low self-confidence (working on it, but that's another story), and I felt I related to poor Helena: unrequited love, somewhat downtrodden, the so-called 'ugly friend'. But I didn't have her... lets call it 'gumption', I didn't have the sort of power behind myself to stand up and be myself.
Believe it or not, this quote (among other things) gave me that.
The idea of the consciousness being that which attracts the other is uplifting. I have personality, I have humour, I have compassion... Those are some of the things that I feel make up (well, contribute to) “mind”, and to be honest, my “mind” is something I feel I can be proud of. If love, any sort of love: friendship, family, romantic, is not perceived solely by the eyes (I won't be naive enough to say that eyes have absolutely nothing at all to do with it), then there's hope for me yet, right?
And that's it, it's a hopeful quote, it's one that simply inspires me to stand up, and be who I am and say “This is what you get. This is what I am. Try me, you might like me”, and not be afraid of it. It puts words to how I'd always thought about other people, and it helped me to think that maybe other people (obviously at least one person in history has) think the same way. So I can stop hiding inside my shell, I can remember that people can see beyond how I look, no matter how good or bad I think I look. Because what matters is the "mind".
Because if love sees with the mind, then wouldn't love see the mind?