There are so many ways to be an activist. Rev. Alison Cornish shares her thoughts on how creating beauty out of what might be “wounded” is a radical act that bring joy and a full heart. People all over the world go to wounded places they care about to share their stories, discover life and resilience there, and make a wild, bold, collaborative act of beauty as a gift to the place for all it has given to humans. -- Lynne
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. -- Roman, 3rd century BCE
Beauty is before me, and beauty behind me, above me and below me hovers the beautiful. I am surrounded by it. I am immersed in it. In my youth, I am aware of it, and, in old age, I shall walk quietly the beautiful trail. In beauty it is begun. In beauty, it is ended. -- From the Navajo Indians, N. America
I have been thinking a lot about beauty lately. What it is, and how we decide? Do we, in fact, decide at all, or are our tastes and ideas of what is beautiful so reflexive that our eyes and minds apply labels before we even have a chance to think?
Recently I’ve been thinking that maybe ‘beauty’ is too loaded a word, a concept, and have instead experimented with the idea of seeing gifts rather than categorizing things as beautiful – or not. For example, last week I was riding the train through a particularly graffiti-heavy corridor north of Philadelphia. My ‘beauty’ gauge kicked in quickly, and I started feeling the annoyance and sadness when I see buildings, walls and boxcars covered with tags, names and images that are mysterious to me in their meaning.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. -- Roman, 3rd century BCE
Beauty is before me, and beauty behind me, above me and below me hovers the beautiful. I am surrounded by it. I am immersed in it. In my youth, I am aware of it, and, in old age, I shall walk quietly the beautiful trail. In beauty it is begun. In beauty, it is ended. -- From the Navajo Indians, N. America
I have been thinking a lot about beauty lately. What it is, and how we decide? Do we, in fact, decide at all, or are our tastes and ideas of what is beautiful so reflexive that our eyes and minds apply labels before we even have a chance to think?
Recently I’ve been thinking that maybe ‘beauty’ is too loaded a word, a concept, and have instead experimented with the idea of seeing gifts rather than categorizing things as beautiful – or not. For example, last week I was riding the train through a particularly graffiti-heavy corridor north of Philadelphia. My ‘beauty’ gauge kicked in quickly, and I started feeling the annoyance and sadness when I see buildings, walls and boxcars covered with tags, names and images that are mysterious to me in their meaning.
My ‘beauty’ gauge kicked in quickly, and I started feeling the annoyance and sadness when I see buildings, walls and boxcars covered with tags, names and images that are mysterious to me in their meaning. But then I paused, and started thinking about the gifts these images represented – the amazing skills of the painters who can conceive of large scale works in multiple colors, execute them relatively quickly to avoid being caught in the act, and are sometimes in extraordinary physical positions – leaning over parapets, balancing on trestles – while they do it. For just a moment, rather than focusing on the (warning -- judgment coming) garishness and defacement that usually stirs me up, I ‘saw’ the gifted people behind the work, their creativity and liveliness and willingness to take risks. And I felt an inner joy as I marveled at this unexpected ‘beauty.’
The same ‘shift’ can apply to our perception of the natural world and its abundance of gifts --which are sometimes veiled by destruction and mistreatment. A friend has created a way for all of us to participate in seeing the familiar, and especially that which has been mistreated, in new ways - Radical Joy for Hard Times (www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org). As the group’s founder, Trebbe Johnson, writes, “When we open our eyes and our hearts to places that seem, at first, ugly or depressing, we are often startled by small instances of beauty or by the ways that even a damaged place continues to thrive.”
What Can You Do?
The same ‘shift’ can apply to our perception of the natural world and its abundance of gifts --which are sometimes veiled by destruction and mistreatment. A friend has created a way for all of us to participate in seeing the familiar, and especially that which has been mistreated, in new ways - Radical Joy for Hard Times (www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org). As the group’s founder, Trebbe Johnson, writes, “When we open our eyes and our hearts to places that seem, at first, ugly or depressing, we are often startled by small instances of beauty or by the ways that even a damaged place continues to thrive.”
What Can You Do?
- Learn more about Radical Joy for Hard Times. -- www.radicaljoyforhardtimes.org/global-earth-exchange/.
- Experiment and change your lens. Think - “Where’s the beauty?” rather than “How ugly or disfacing!”
- Make something beautiful. Be creative! I sometimes take the mess on my counter and a make a sculpture. It relieves my anger and feeds my creativity.
- Explore Joanna Macy, www.JoannaMacy.net; and, "The Work that Reconnects” www.WorkThatReconnects.org
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