on Beauty — A stand alone ideal or something more? (Part 1 of 2)
This is part 1 of a two-part essay on beauty. You can find part 2 here.
I recently stumbled on two beautiful, powerful quotes that stopped me in my tracks and got me thinking more deeply about beauty.
In every moment of life SORROW & JOY kiss
-Henri Nouwen
Only two things pierce the human heart — BEAUTY & AFFLICTION
-Simone Weil
For as long as I can remember, I saw beauty as pure, separate, and singular — sublimity unscathed, untouched, unblemished — a thing unto itself. The quotes above resonated so deeply and challenged my views on beauty so significantly that, in time, they cultivated in me a renewed, more subtle, but significantly broader perspective on the role of beauty in our lives.
Of course, there are many instances where beauty stands alone and retains its sui generis quality — think of the pure beauty of a fresh rose or the awe you feel in the presence of a rainbow or a shooting star. But, beauty is also more. Because beauty is so intricately woven into the many contrasts, contradictions, and complexities of life, it's also a multifaceted phenomenon. In this respect, we can think of beauty as a foil. As an amorphous ideal that clarifies and defines by shining a revealing spotlight on the complex essence of things, without which it would be hard for us to fully appreciate, or even comprehend, life's many paradoxes.
To explore and elucidate this concept further, let's look at two illustrative examples — the symbiosis of happiness and sadness, and the transformative dance between adversity and personal growth. These pairings demonstrate how seemingly contrary elements often coexist and mutually define each other, much like the multifaceted nature of beauty.
In any large group of people, we often see a typical distribution of happiness and sadness that mirrors the familiar bell curve. Most people cluster near the center of this curve, experiencing a blend of both emotions, fluctuating along the emotional spectrum over time. At the far edges on either side, however, lie the outliers — the extremes. On one side, we find people who are persistently sad or depressed, while on the other, rarer side are those who seem perpetually cheerful, experiencing happiness more consistently than most.
For now, let’s set aside the clustered majority and focus on the edge cases, as they closely resemble beauty in its purest form. The mere presence of these outliers challenges the common belief that to truly know happiness or sadness, one must have experienced the opposite. In other words, happiness and sadness — like many contrasting emotions or ideals — exist in a delicate balance where one defines the other. The same holds true for the relationship between adversity and personal growth. Very often, growth is a direct result of facing significant challenges, setbacks, and hardships. Without the sharp edges of adversity, there would be nothing to spark meaningful change or catalyze personal growth.
Having personally experienced and seen both my entire life, I strongly agree with and stand behind the idea of the juxtapositional relationship between happiness and sadness and adversity and personal growth. That, however, doesn't mean the edge cases aren't real. Annoyingly, there really are people who are happy all the time, and horrifically, those who are sad all the time. Similarly, some people can and do change and grow despite experiencing little to no adversity or hardships in their lives.
Having personally experienced both extremes throughout my life, I fully support the idea that happiness and sadness, like adversity and personal growth, exist in a delicate balance. However, this doesn’t mean the edge cases aren’t real. While annoying or unrealistic to most of us, there are indeed people who are generally happy all the time, just as tragically, there are those who are perpetually sad most or all of the time. Similarly, while not necessarily commonplace, some people do manage to change and grow despite facing little to no adversity or hardship.
My argument, simply, is that beauty is no different. As often as we find beauty exactly where we expect — in the delicate wings of a butterfly, the majesty of a mountain peak, or the eyes and smiles of our children — we also find it in the most unexpected places — in the spontaneous kindness of strangers, the hypnotic swirl of dust in a sunbeam, and in the deep bonds forged by soldiers deployed in war zones.
Beauty, I came to see, isn't solely a stand alone ideal. It's also ubiquitous and saturating. It shapes how we see, feel, and connect. It sharpens our perceptions, allowing us to glimpse the extraordinary in the ordinary and the profound in the mundane. Beauty touches us in moments of both joy and sorrow, on our brightest days and our darkest nights.
See on Beauty — What is beauty & where can it be found? (Part 2 of 2) where I use this fresh perspective on beauty to answer the question what is beauty and where can it be found?