Uncommon Beauty

I wrote this essay for reflections contest and won second. The topic was Define Beauty.


“Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in the mirror” - Kahlil Gabran. Beauty is anything which provokes inspirational thought. It cannot be destroyed, nor contained. The thoughts which remain in the individual from the work itself are the true beauty of life. Once beauty is found, it cannot be held. It flows though you, and brings a renewed gratification for the details which are so overlooked in the world. It will fill you, and its fire of inspiration will always have its embers rustled when you bring it to mind. Beauty is forever. It is the quiet force which is concealed till the mind opens its doors. I believe beauty comes in two forms, that which is personal, and that which is universal.
Personal beauty is any work of art which was not designed. It has been found in my own life in the markings of two generations of family in my grandmothers house. The marks each child made on the wall from each year they grew, the wear of the tile floor in the kitchen, and the smell of the rosemary plants on the patio. Although many could view it as run down, or even shabby, I recollect on these things as a great reminder to the memories they bring. Simply revolving an aged letter opener, dulled by decades of use and its golden tent made murky by the rub of hands, could bring to mind what he letters said, or the reactions from a few special cards. The imperfections around the home, such as the split tile from dropping a chair someone carried could bring to mind all the dinners around the table the chair experienced. One could ask, How could cracks on a floor possibly show beauty? Surely beauty can be found in art which is made by skilled renaissance men, or in the shine of modern skyscrapers, but it is not found in imperfections. Beauty however, is not found only in great works. The nostalgic feelings which are reminisce on when visiting an old town, or holding an object from the past, are as beautiful as the colors in the sky. It turns over aged memories, encompassed with dust, and shakes the rust off of what was formerly forgotten. The autumn leaves were not designed by any great artist, yet they bring joy when walking on a windy day, if in the right mindset. If in the wrong mindset they are an inconvenience and grab at your boots, and tug your jacket, you can never appreciate the simple beauty of nature’s dance. Personal beauty invokes what universal beauty mimics, the epiphany of contentment, and the urge to understand more deeply its complexities. The sea waves breaking upon worn sand, the tiny stitches in a human fingerprint, and the puddle upon which the world reflects are all pieces of personal beauty, which when put
together, form the world we live in, if only one can see the puzzle in front of us.
Beauty can also be universal, or anything made by humans to invoke inspirational reaction. The artwork of Michelangelo, who painted the Sistine Chapel, still speaks its volumes to us today. The artwork reaches out to you, and its purpose is for you to feel like you are in the heaven which it displays. This is, the more commonly recognized art. You can sort it, organize it, and put it away in boxes and folders, but the work itself is not the beauty which most hold ideal, it is the reaction, the awe-inspiring, which is the true beauty of these works. Even the notes in Debussy’s Clair de Lune, although not beautiful themselves, but once strung together and timed, are as inspirational as the works in paint,pastels, and photographs. The silent lyrics in the classical music speak more of emotion than of words, and nothing gets lost in translation. Many find Ansel Adam’s photographs to be the beauty in the natural world which they seek, and they are correct that it is beauty. But Ansel Adams saw the photographs the way they were, before they were even shot, he only wanted to help others view it the way he did, and used filters and color distortions to portray them in the light which he viewed himself. In this way, universal art helps convey, to those who need a helping hand, the artistic and beautiful nature of the natural world.
In conclusion, I urge you to evaluate beauty in your own life, and to pick up the pieces of the puzzle which so many miss in the rush of everyday.

- Nathan Boone