Nicholas Higgins 15/05/2020

On Beauty

‘Beauty saves the world’, The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

There are failures and struggles in life, but also the joy and the pursuit of something better, something more important, something ideal. Amidst such a tumultuous world, beauty is a breath of fresh air. It inspires you, moves you, stops you in your tracks. Merely contemplating it, as Plato put it, causes the ‘soul to grow wings’.

It is however a pretty nebulous concept. It can be experienced in any multiple of ways, from nature, to music, to art, architecture, sport, science, food and relationships. Perhaps apart from nature (who doesn’t like a sunset?), neither is it totally objective. I might find a Francis Bacon painting abhorrent, while my neighbour lauds it as a masterpiece. It’s also intangible, beauty is not a concrete thing, but a feeling, a pleasurable reaction when our senses are elevated. 

In each case, however, we know it when we feel it. When we do, it is nothing less than nectar to the soul. We all yearn for beauty because it gives priority to this part of our being, not just our physical needs. And is not the soul more important? Truly, life is more than food, and the body more than clothes (Luke 12:23). Only humans can seek out and express beauty. The black stallion does not know its own beauty, it does not have the capacity to perceive it. But we do. 

I, like many millions, find astonishing beauty in the Arts. Painting, sculpture, poetry, literature, music; none of these are particularly practical. Arguably they’re perfectly useless. What else can we do with a painting other than look at it, or music than listen to it? They don’t fulfil material tasks; they don’t satisfy hunger, shelter us from a storm or provide warmth. 

Yet they all steer a mysterious path through our senses, triggering unexpected and powerful emotional responses. In what has been called ‘Florence syndrome’, some tourists are so overcome by the sight of Michelangelo’s statue of David, that they faint or hallucinate. Likewise, your heart would have to be made of stone, for it not to be stirred by the searing violins of Tomaso Albioni’s Adagio for Strings. 

This kind of simple, honest, free beauty has been distorted by the modern machine. Western advertising and marketing value beauty in its outward, physical, superficial form. Plastic surgery, fitness obsession, skincare, fashion: these things we are told will make you (and keep you) beautiful. Another pitiful attempt of society to create hierarchies and boundaries. 

This narrow view of beauty has done much to de-sensitise us to it. Walking amidst the hustle and bustle of London a few months back, I was struck how few people bother to look over their smartphone screens. They bypass the capital’s great architectural wonders. St Pauls Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St Pancras railway station: these are but masses of brick or stone to be navigated around, ignored and used as they go about their daily lives. People stroll and chat in parks, but only blink at the mighty oaks and the flowering dandelions. We eat food, but seldom appreciate the miracle of life that turns a tiny seedling into a vegetable on your plate. In today’s cynical age, these beautiful things are taken for granted.

I typically drink my coffee out of an old naval mug. I’d never given it a second thought until a friend pointed out its intricate engraving, its feel and touch, its perfect union of form and function. The fact that it was made with the love and care of human hands. Truly, beauty is everywhere around us, and it often exists in the most humdrum of things. As Confucius put it,  ‘everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it’. Let us then, have eyes to see and ears to hear, the beautiful things in life. It can be found anywhere you are, and if you're not seeing it, then that's exactly the problem. 

He who finds what’s beautiful in what everyone overlooks as bland, surely leads a more grounded and positive life for it. He leaves the dull multitudes to occupy their minds with their own limited lives. Appreciating day to day beauty on the other hand, forces you to plant your feet firmly on the ground and live, in the here and now. Beautiful things bring forth sweet, brief moments of joy. Listening to Adagio for Strings for example, I’m marvelled and uplifted, pulled out of my small, ordinary life and taken to a realm far richer and more eloquent than anything I know. Even for a few brief moments, I want for nothing.  

This kind of positive (‘mindful’) thinking literally rewires your brain by forming new neural pathways. Evidence shows this in turn improves mood, relationships, productivity and overall quality of life. If beauty is the lens through which you see the world, then you can sit back and watch your world become more beautiful. It’s your decision. We can either wallow in cynicism and negativity, or seize with both hands all the beauty that life proffers up. Dwell, as Phillipians 4:8 puts it, on ‘whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable’. Bide with beauty. 

This kind of attitude gives you hope in suffering; a new strength and vitality in the midst of pain. Despite the unimaginable trauma the Holocaust, Victor Frankl describes in Man’s Search for Meaning, how he was able to admire the beauty of a sunset like never before:

‘If someone had seen our faces on the journey from Auschwitz to a Bavarian camp as we beheld the mountains of Salzburg with their summits glowing in the sunset, through the little barred windows of the prison cage, he would never have believed that those were the faces of men who had given up all hope of life and liberty’.

Even in the darkest valley’s, beauty brings an upward spiral of peace, relaxation and harmony. Perhaps this is also a comment that it’s because of modern comfort and ease, that beauty is ignored? Only when you’re down and out, are you obliged to notice these things. 

Thus, just as we shouldn’t retreat from suffering, nor should we hide our faces from beauty.  Living life without it is like painting a canvas in two dimensions. No perspective or depth. It’s limited in its potential to uplift, inspire or move. Rather, we must cultivate a rich, positive, ‘beauty-centric’ attitude to life. There is literally no downside to such an approach, beauty can only enhance our lives.