I’ve spent the past few months thinking about beauty, the goal being to understand it enough to write about it. This is an integral part of my writing process, I call it the immersion phase. Its the stage between when I commit to a topic to actually writing about it. To-date this has been my longest immersion and yet I feel like I could use more time. See, my stengths lie in the metaphysical space. I can easily psychoanalyse every single emotion to its core, recognize the hidden forces at play and derive meaning from the mundane. On the other hand, I have to put in more effoer for material matters, especially on a subjective topic like beauty.
Nonetheless, I’ve been immersing myself in all things beautiful; music, art, nature, people, you name it. As an outdoorsy person living in the evergreen state of Washington, beauty hasn’t been hard to find. There is no denying that nature creates one the most beautiful aesthetics known to man. It takes a lot of restrain to not be awed by alpine lakes, mossy forests and snow-capped peaks. I’ve been paying close attention to the context around beauty, seeking answers to what makes anything beautiful, where to find it and why it matters. Here is what I’ve learnt:
Beauty is diverse. ¶
There is ussually discomfort to talking about beauty, especially around people’s beauty. We are still divided on basics like the definition of beauty, the standards of beauty, what to make of artificially enhanced beauty, where to place inner beauty. As a woman, I can’t afford to ignore this conversation; 80% of my socialization is around beauty. I wish that wasn’t the case but this is the world we live in. I think part of the discomfort comes from the all-or-nothing connotation. We talk of beauty like its one totem pole and we should aspire for a higher rank on it, but it is infact a spectrum. There is space for all kinds of beauty and one doesn’t take away from another.
Beauty can be arranged. ¶
It is true that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, but the beholders have more in common than they think. All beautiful things are made of the same building blocks as ordinary things, what’s different is their arrangement. The same set of colors yields fashion icons and clowns; the same vocabulary produces masterpieces and boring manuals. What beauty has is alignment; harmony between the building blocks to serve a grander purpose. All beholders appreciate alignment.
This is a beautiful painting, the colors are aligned to contrast each other. I can’t say the same about my fridge which has beautiful components, magnets I found pretty enough to purchase, without any alignment.
The same can be said of inner beauty. At the heart of every beautiful story is alignment; ordinary characters operating as one.
Beauty is balance. ¶
Beautiful things are by-definition elevated. You can tell the creator put time and effort into creating a masterpiece. Nature takes millions of years to produce scenic landscapes. Leonardo da Vinci took 16 years to paint Monalisa. The artist deserves credit for sure, but part of the appeal is in familiarity. I appreciate a good photo of Seattle because I’ve seen the ordinary version of it. I acknowledge its elegance because I can relate to it.
Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash
For the same reason I would have a hard time critiquing alien art. I wouldn’t have a frame of refence. Beauty is neither elegant nor familiar but the right balance between the two.
Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash
There is no doubt that beauty is a net positive in our lives. Its hard to explain why jagged peaks stop us in our tracks or what makes a story beautiful, but its easy to observe that we are touched. Beauty fills us with awe, humbles us while also pushing us to be our best. It is within our capacity to seek it, if you can’t create it, appreciate it.