To Seek or Hide From Beauty

It’s startling to realize that your children actually listen to you. It makes me very concerned about all of the things that I’ve been saying over the last eleven years or so. But my children have taken, upon seeing something incredibly beautiful—and especially if I point out that something to them—to scream, “Oh no, beauty! It burns, it burns.” I believe this is my fault.

My boys are quoting the suggestion that one should avoid beauty at all costs as it clearly burns one’s eyes. It’s possible that these children are misguided, or, even more remotely likely, that they are joking. Kids, don’t believe everything I say, but do believe this: beauty is valuable, too valuable to dismiss. In my quest to learn to live more thoughtfully, I have found greatness in it. Seek out beauty every day, and you will find fulfillment.

None of this fatherly advice presupposes that there is one definition of beauty; that which is beautiful to me is not necessarily beautiful to you or (definitely not) to my children. But let’s suppose you have some spare time and inclination. In that case, you might consider popping over to Snowdonia National Park in Wales or the Great Ocean Road outside of Melbourne, Australia, or watch the sunset over your ger in the Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia. These are only a few of the places in the world that are incontestably beautiful—I’m willing to venture.

I have a soul, I swear

I have of late received some subtle criticism from someone who shall remain nameless—so nameless, in fact, that she doesn’t even sign her blog posts. These baseless and acerbic jabs implied that I exude snark as a counterpoint to her emotional depth. And while it is true that I possess a pittance of anything that could be described as emotional depth, when I stand atop a summit looking at a landscape that could only have been crafted with love in the heart of creation, I briefly think that maybe, just maybe there is…

Sorry, I lost my train of thought there. What were we talking about?

Yes, of course. Beauty. Allow me to further explore the topic with regard to the intentional creation of our lives. I’ve heard some trendy people rapping on “lifestyle design,” which sounds really cool, but seems a bit too much like they are placing an order for their existence from an Ikea catalog. I simply want to think aloud about the role that beauty plays in the lives we lead day in and day out.

Casting Beauty in the Main Role

For ten years, this was the view from my bedroom window.

Each morning, I woke to this inspiring panorama or some variant thereof. Sometimes there was snow, and sometimes spring flowers. Sometimes I saw a deer, and even a fox once or twice. I didn’t, of course, think profoundly about the beauty before me at the time. It was just there—there to be taken for granted. Since selling that house, I have slept in an estimated two hundred different beds, and some things that were called beds but didn’t deserve the title. Each one offered a different morning view—and let me tell you, they are not all created equal.

Right now, I can reflect without bitterness the squandering of that beauty only because I am currently sheltered in the aesthetic of Scotland’s glorious highlands. But as for those places that are no delight for the senses, well, I confess to you that I am not impervious to them as I ought to be. Less-than-sublime surroundings affect me negatively. Insidiously and relentlessly so. To rise above those moments, I have to swallow a hard lump of hypocrisy and rely on a little self-parenting. I make my inner voice repeat the mantra: “The outside can influence, but does not dictate, my internal state.”

Influence but does not dictate

Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I have explained that concept to my children, I could afford to buy a pretty good vista! And yet, after all of that sagacious parenting, I still find it painfully easy to forget my own advice.

The outside can influence, but does not dictate, my internal state.

Chris Santillo

You see, waking up to a delightful view can help set your day off in the right direction, just as the ugliness around us does seem to settle heavily into our souls. But I believe that we can defy this influence. Waking to a somber surround will not necessarily condemn you to a bad day, and awakening to beauty does not guarantee a good one.

Hold up, though. I might believe wholeheartedly in the perseverance of the spirit and power of the mind to overcome adversity. But doesn’t it make sense to set ourselves up for success if the choice is ours?

What, then, to do?

Maybe, rather than challenging our internal state by living with ugliness, we should spend every waking moment (and possibly every sleeping moment) actively seeking out beauty of the highest order possible. We should surround ourselves with it. We should live in it; walk in it. We should find ways to line our homes with beauty, arrange our lives so that we step out of our front door and are greeted by beauty. If there is a void of beauty, we should strive to fill it by creating beauty anew.

Build beauty into your life. Start by appreciating the beauty that is already there. Focus on it every day and create more. But be careful that you don’t depend on it.

Or you could hide from it, fearful that it will burn your eyes.

Questions and Comments

Please comment below:

• Have I overstated the case, is beauty not of such significance?
• Is seeking beauty an unnecessary luxury only considered by the effete?