Trying to define beauty can be like trying to put words to a painting. At one level we can ponder a painting and say "wow this painting makes so much sense, the colors and the shading represent a dark or light mood. Look at how unique the tree looks, that has to be because it's not rooted in the right place". Then you think more about it and you wonder if you even came close to what the artist was trying to communicate. In a way you don't mind wondering because it may change the beauty you see in the painting to know the artists perspective.
Beauty always catches the eye but everyone see's it differently.
A simple example of this could be found throughout the history of Greek and Japanese culture.
"Greeks were obsessed with the aesthetics and held beauty above all". Plato was among the philosophers that believed beautiful objects incorporated proportion, harmony, and unity among their parts.
There is a little bit of Greek in all of us. Maybe you obsess with how your office, car, or house looks. I have a friend that couldn't keep a relationship for more than a few months because they got bothered by one ear being bigger than the other. Why do you think Apple is so popular? We love clean and proportioned aesthetics. Apple owners love that Apple is concerned with being user friendly, and creating a harmonious relationship between all of their products. We love the appearance, the harmony and unity in our beautiful Apple products. The Ancient Greeks would be big Apple supporters.
Beauty catches the eye of the Japanese in a different way than the Greeks. Wabi-Sabi is a term the Japanese use for what they believe is truly beautiful. Wabi-sabi is a very unique characteristic of what the Japanese define as beautiful because it involves roughness and irregularity. According to Wabi-sabi nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. This hits home for me when I see a married couple in their 70's barely able to walk looking at each other and admiring the beauty of their lover. This thought reminds me of a Proverb, "Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth." It's foreign to us but we all want to see it this way.
Wabi-sabi is on to something here. There is some truth to the "nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect" philosophy. I understand this more everyday. I just got married and I will see my wife almost everyday for the rest of my life. I know that her physical looks will change overtime, but I have a hard time believing that her beauty will die with her anatomy.
The most interesting part about this philosophy is that "nothing is finished".
There is more to life that we can see. What we see around us is a temporary state of what is supposed to be. I also believe that Jesus has come to restore the beauty of creation. He has come to reclaim the blueprint of our existence. You see it in his relationships, experiences, and his beliefs. He know's it's not finished, there is still work to be done. He has a way of looking at the ugly and seeing the beauty despite it's roughness and irregularity.
All things have beauty and in this life all things are not finished. When we can see beauty we can see the originality of creation and how mind blowing it's uniqueness and goodness is.
How do you see beauty in your day to day life? What makes the things around you so attractive?
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