Senseless beauty

[okieinexile]

Senseless beauty

By Bobby Neal Winters

I ran into a neighbor of mine at a football game the other day. He’s the fellow with the angel in his yard. It is an object of senseless beauty. There is not a reason in the world he would have it in his yard other than it makes the world more beautiful. Beauty doesn’t put beans on the table and it doesn’t make us live longer, but he’s put the statue there and gone to the trouble to replace it when it’s been vandalized. What’s more, the other folks in the neighborhood get to see it more than he does. There is no figuring out some people.

This particular fellow and his wife share a cat with my in-laws. They call the cat Levi and my in-laws call him Earl T. Grey. He has a beautiful deep gray fur and enough of an air of superiority for three cats his size. The sharing goes on mainly during the summer months because—in addition to an angel in their yard—Levi’s owners have provided him with a cathouse with a heated floor. I’ve know human males who’ve happily settled for less.

Owning cats is a state of being that is completely devoid of logic. Cats are expensive. They have to be fed, they refuse to cooperate with each other, they do no discernable work, and they are only affectionate when they want something. (In looking backwards in that sentence, I am disturbed to find I could replace the word cats with men, university faculty, and university administration and have it remain true.) There is no rational reason to own a cat, but we do for some reason. I think it is because they are beautiful.
As I make my rounds in town this time of year, I am always amazed by the show the trees put on. On bright days the yellows from the gum trees shine like a second sun. On cloudy days, the reds smolder like coals in a fire. Why are the autumn leaves so beautiful? Flowers are beautiful in order to attract bees. They don their colors in order that they may be pollinated. Color for them is a matter of survival.

The beauty of trees in the autumn is senseless. They are long past pollination. Yet the beauty is there.

This brings up another question. Why does such a thing as beauty exist? One might argue that it doesn’t. There are people who look at a blazing red autumn tree and see nothing but firewood. Consequently, it would be argued, there is nothing objective about beauty.

Yet, consider mathematics. Someone in China can sit down at the kitchen table looking at 2x-4=0 and figure out that x=2, and someone in Peru can do the same thing. Not everybody can do this, but that is not an indication that x is not 2. It is simply an indication that a particular ability is undeveloped in some folks.

Now, consider beauty. Someone from China and someone from Peru can look at the same tree and recognize it is beautiful. The beauty is there, it is real, but the ability to appreciate it is undeveloped in some.

There are those who would have us believe that our aesthetic senses are developed in this way only by the forces of evolution. Though I am a supporter of the theory of evolution, to this I have a comment.

Pttttttttttt.

Add some more Ts to that later when you have the time.

The ability to appreciate beauty is a gift from God and is a sure sign of his grace, but the Almighty has a tendency to give us gifts that require a bit of effort and discipline on our part to get the full use of.

I rewatched The Last Samurai on TNT the other night. In the middle of the movie, the warlord looked at a cherry blossom and remarked that a man could spend his whole life looking for a perfect blossom and not have lived a wasted life. At the end of the movie, in his moment of death, he saw thousands of blossoms in the distance and said, “They are all perfect.”
The senseless beauty is all around us. We can spend our lives seeking it out and not have wasted a minute.

(Bobby Winters is a Professor of Mathematics, writer, and speaker. You may contact him at bwinters1@cox.net or visit his website at www.okieinexilepress.com. )

[sara[h]ng]

Originally Posted by okieinexile

[b][size="7"]
Owning cats is a state of being that is completely devoid of logic. Cats are expensive. They have to be fed, they refuse to cooperate with each other, they do no discernable work, and they are only affectionate when they want something. (In looking backwards in that sentence, I am disturbed to find I could replace the word cats with men, university faculty, and university administration and have it remain true.) There is no rational reason to own a cat, but we do for some reason. I think it is because they are beautiful.

lol!
From someone with 2 cats and a few men.

[manephelien]

The ability to appreciate beauty is a gift from God and is a sure sign of his grace, but the Almighty has a tendency to give us gifts that require a bit of effort and discipline on our part to get the full use of.

I'm afraid I must take exception to this phrase in the strongest possible terms. There's no god in my life nor do I feel the need of one, but that doesn't make me unable to appreciate the beauty of a waking wood at dawn, a sunset, or the almost eerie bluish light of an Arctic winter's day.

[okieinexile]

Originally Posted by manephelien

I'm afraid I must take exception to this phrase in the strongest possible terms. There's no god in my life nor do I feel the need of one, but that doesn't make me unable to appreciate the beauty of a waking wood at dawn, a sunset, or the almost eerie bluish light of an Arctic winter's day.

I suggest that you read the phrase again. I didn't say you were unable to appreciate it. I said it was God that gave it to you. You don't believe in Him. I do. He made you, he gave you the capacity to appreciate beauty, but you need to work on the discipline of reading more carefully.

[manephelien]

I've enjoyed reading your columns very much, even though I disagree with the premise in many of them.

God didn't have any hand in my creation, or that of any other being on this planet, or this universe come to that. Luck of the genetic draw and a nurturing environment when I grew up, as well as some conscious adjusting when adult formed my personality.

Saying God had anything to do with it to an atheist is just about as useless as stating I'll go to hell because I don't believe. Hard to be afraid of something you don't believe in, and while atheists are as capable of being irrational as believers, not even I am capable of such arrant hypocrisy as to fear something I don't believe exists...

[okieinexile]

Originally Posted by manephelien

I've enjoyed reading your columns very much, even though I disagree with the premise in many of them.

God didn't have any hand in my creation, or that of any other being on this planet, or this universe come to that. Luck of the genetic draw and a nurturing environment when I grew up, as well as some conscious adjusting when adult formed my personality.

Saying God had anything to do with it to an atheist is just about as useless as stating I'll go to hell because I don't believe. Hard to be afraid of something you don't believe in, and while atheists are as capable of being irrational as believers, not even I am capable of such arrant hypocrisy as to fear something I don't believe exists...

Thank you for the compliment. Might I remark that saying God didn't have a hand in creation to a Christian is equally as useless as saying the reverse to an atheist. If you don't believe, don't believe. If my belief offends you, then go disbelieve someplace else because I am not going to modify what I write in any way.

You are, however, welcome to read and comment as long as you aren't under the impression you'll ever be able to convert me.