What if there was no beauty?

No flowers? No waves in the ocean? No grand sunsets resting upon millions of clouds?

Lifeblood

Is music just for enjoyment? Are novels just fun to read?

Maybe…

Mark Twain wrote the following in the beginning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot” Source

If novels were just about pleasure, then… why do people “find a motive”, “find a moral” or “find a plot” in novels they read?

What is so theraputic about walks in nature? Why do hikes exercise our bodies, clear our minds and invigorate our spirits? And touch our hearts?

Or what of the archetype of a destitute painter, who lives his life in poverty only to become a hero beyond the grave? What of the Van Goghs of the world?

Back in the theme of great American authors, one of my very favorite authors is Lovecraft, who never achieved fame in his lifetime, but revolutionized the horror genre. What drove Lovecraft to write, and write, and write? To craft cosmic, fantastical stories of horrors which, even the scientific minded may begin to believe as possible?

Because art is air to our lungs. Art is blood to our hearts. Art is electricity to our minds. Serenades to our ears. Beautiful light to our eyes. While logic may provide a foundation, it is the holy matrimony to beauty which provides purpose, understanding and deeper meaning.

How do I create art?

The infant babbles. Yells. Mumbles. Makes the sounds of every letter in the alphabet hundreds of times.

Her cerebellum is learning to coordinate her vocal cords, and muscles in her face to speak. Her mother plays detective, and understands her before anyone else. But soon she will be understood by others, as she begins to put words together. In a year or two, sentences. Then paragraphs, then essays.

And then she has escaped earth’s gravity.

So too the guitarist learns his first chord. The painter buys her first set of acrylics, for more expensive than she imagined. The new violinist squeaks as he learns how to bow. The baker burns her first cake.

So how does one begin to create art? Just start.

Does a baby get a degree in public speaking before speaking her first words? Of course not.

How is it that we lose the wisdom we had in infancy?

I’ve embarked on a journey to write more articles myself. I am in my infancy with writing myself, but I enjoy it! My spirit is learning to speak. I half don’t know what I’m doing with this project, but I’m excited to embark on this journey.

So… what does your spirit want to say?

My wonderful reader, you too have a spirit which needs to speak! I truly believe that you too have beauty that is so vital to the human family.

What is beauty?

This is a controversial, subjective concept for many. Is it outer appearance? Ones inner character? Is it the things we create?

Let’s agree on something. Would it be safe to agree that flowers are beautiful?

So what is it about flowers? Is it just the outward appearance? Or is there something of the divine complexity? Do you begin to ponder the meaning of life?

And thus your spirit is fed.

Cooking and Eating

Beauty is something to both consume, and to produce. Perhaps every work of art was inspired by something. Or someone.

So be inspired! Feed your spirit and heart with beauty! With nature. With art. Find much more than pleasure in the trees, flowers, clouds, paintings, music…

Perhaps there is someone, or many people, who will absolutely need the beauty you create.