Reconsidering Beauty

I have written about beauty before, but concepts like beauty are so profound, they can be considered from many different perspectives and out of different contexts.  For example, there is beauty in nature, in relationships and a variety of other things.  I recently had a chance to go back to Krista Tippett’s wonderful book, Becoming Wise.  I am doing some work on the theme of wisdom and so her book was an obvious resource.  As I read through it again, I happened on the idea of beauty.  I want to reconsider some of the aspects of beauty.

She begins a section on beauty with this observation.  “The apprehension of beauty, at the life-giving seam between what is sensory and spiritual, is a virtue that clarifies.” (73)  I admit I have not considered beauty as a virtue.  This is a new idea and one I want to ponder.  I do like the idea of “apprehending” beauty.  And I am intrigued by her notion that it comes at the seam of the sensory and the spiritual.  Obviously, I am drawn to thing spiritual and so want to pursue her thought here. 

She goes a bit further with the idea of virtue.  Of beauty she notes, “It has taken me by surprise as a way into the superstar virtues.”  I suppose by superstar virtues, she means the classical ones, like compassion, justice and the like.  I laughed at her confession, which could well be my confession.  “I was a late bloomer in my reverence for visual beauty in art or in the natural world.”  “Me too,” I want to plead. 

Then in her mid-20s while she was living in Germany, she took a trip to Scotland.  She puts it this way: “I first looked up and out---literally, that’s how I recall it---in Scotland…Scotland shocked me to attention with its angular edges, cascading hues of green and heather, and extraordinary light.  It stilled me.  It softened my confusion and my perpetual restlessness by dwarfing them, putting them in their place.” (73-4)  I like how she writes---virtually painting a picture with her words.  Perhaps you have to really see beauty to write beautifully.  I’m still learning!

Her next sentence surprised me.  I did not see this one coming.  She says, “I recognized not merely a grandeur but a solid reality that also put high geopolitical clamor in its place.  This was the beginning of spiritual life for me.”  (74)  Beauty leads to spiritual life.  Wow!  This leads Tippett to move to conversations with people who knew more about beauty and spirituality than she knew.  

I agree when Tippett laments that “Culturally, beauty is one of those muddied words.”  (75)  She then turns to the Irish poet, John O’Donohue, for more words of wisdom.  Both Tippett and O’Donohue want to expand our definition of beauty beyond the merely physical attractive aspect of people.  She admires O’Donohue’s definition of beauty, which I very much like too.  He talks about beauty in the everyday.  This is his take: “beauty is that in the presence of which we feel more alive.”  Real beauty makes us feel alive.  

Surely, we need to be aware of the beauty that is present for us to feel more alive.  Too many times, we are buried in one of our technological devices to be aware of that which is all around.  She tells us that O’Donohue was “poetic about the possibility of creating our own inner landscapes of beauty…”  (76)  This opens the door to seeing beauty without---in the world---and within---inside our own worlds and, especially, our imagination.  This is where O’Donohue begins to sound spiritual to me.

O’Donohue takes his description of beauty one step further.  He acknowledges, “I think beauty in that sense is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth, and also a kind of homecoming for the enriched memory of your unfolding life.” (77)  There is so much here; let me simply note a couple points that strike me.  Beauty as emerging fullness is a compelling idea.  It suggests to me that beauty is both sufficient and efficient.  It is sufficient to fill us in amazing ways.  And it is efficient because it moves us without a seeming effort.  We are lifted into, as he says, a greater sense of grace and elegance.  Reading that tells me I never talk about grace and elegance in the same sentence.  I am attracted to that.  I will begin to see grace as elegant!

There is no doubt that beauty has a depth to it.  I realize I like the language of profundity to describe beauty and profundity has depth to it.  Profundity is not superficial and simple glossy.  His last idea of beauty as a kind of homecoming is fascinating.  I never thought about it that way.  To me that is also spiritual.  Along with many theologians, I want to associate God with the idea of beauty.  To be drawn to beauty is to be lured home.  And home is always toward God---toward the presence who becomes the Presence.

I am quite content to understand life in evolutionary terms---our unfolding.  I do think that unfolding is directional and purposeful.  We are heading home.  That homecoming process has both memory and hope.  We remember where we have been on the journey and we have hope that we are heading home.

That is how I am reconsidering beauty.