- Confucius
What is beauty?
Just a couple of days ago I went on a hike up in the Mission Trails area of San
Diego. The hills and trails are an
amazing place to see the natural world, get some exercise, and really appreciate
the beauty that surrounds us. It’s a
wonder how easily people, myself included, can block out the simplistic
splendor the world has to offer. In the
fast paced consumerism world we live in, it isn’t sexy or profitable to
advertise the beauty in things that don't easily translate into profit. Apropos to this idea is
the very word beauty. I’ve often found
my mind going directly to an image of a gorgeous woman when I hear the word
beauty, and it’s not surprising when we consider every American is bombarded
with pictures, movies, advertisments, and such constantly telling us that is
the accepted form of beauty. Now there’s
nothing wrong with thinking of women as a form of beauty. I for one am completely anamored with women,
however, as Confucius has told us, beauty exists everywhere. We just need to open our eyes to it.
Does Everything really have beauty?
If you think about it, saying everything has beauty might seem
suspect. Garbage heaps and sewage plants
aren’t the most attractive places to be or to visually admire. Some might argue that abandoned buildings are not very attractive either. However, if you examine each without the
accepted negative connotations associated with them, what do you see then? Nothing exists in a vacuum, but opening
yourself up to a new perspective might lead you to a new appreciation for
something you once thought had no beauty at all. Certainly you may find that some things are
much easier to identify as beautiful as opposed to others. That’s natural.
Creating a new beauty
Now for the hard part. Take a moment and set aside all you know about beauty, all you expect and want from beauty, all you have been conditioned to believe is beautiful. Just try to silence the expectations and just appreciate a subject for what it is. Contemplate the value of the object before you solely on its merits. Practice with several different things and see if it jars your way of thinking. Really look, let yourself feel.
Now, what do you see?
