Illustration Courtesy of McGill University Library
Asking someone, “what is beauty” is like asking them “what is art?” One person’s idea of what is beautiful may not be anything like what another person perceives as beautiful. But there are some elements of beauty, regardless of the form, that speak to us on a deep level.
Beautiful things have a way of making us feel joyful, elevated, and hopeful. They uplift our spirits. They make the heaviness, that life can often deliver, bearable. That’s why art has been an important part of life on earth since the cavemen.
Why Beauty is Essential
Photo by Yogesh Mankame on Unsplash
Photo by Aldo Gonzalez on Unsplash
I was motivated to write about this – something I’ve been thinking about for a long time now – after watching an American commentator speak to a group of college students in Europe last month. He was deeply moved by the majestic beauty of the old city, the buildings, bullet-ridden from WWII but still standing; the artisan’s details in the ornaments; the lush landscape of the surroundings. What he said was that in our gut we simply “know” beauty when we see it because it speaks to our soul.
Soviet Housing in Romania photos courtesy of Wiki
That talk resonated personally with me. Twenty-five years ago I visited Brno, Czech Republic, and was similarly affected by those same types of old, majestic buildings, also ridden with bullet holes. But what affected me even more was their juxtaposition against the blocks, and blocks, and blocks of Soviet built housing: rectangular, unadorned concrete structures, without decks or patios, and a single window. They looked like prisons. A woman leaned out of one of those windows, with an expression of longing and resignation that haunts me to this day.
Are we headed there?
Photo by Sandra. PleinAyer Images @gmail.com
Photo by Sandra. PleinAyerImages @gmail.com
So here’s my rant. When I first moved to Berkeley, nearly 50 years ago, I was charmed by the diversity, eccentricity, and harmony in the architecture, the people, and the food. There was a real sense of community. In the past four or five years, much of that has been lost, bulldozed, in fact, and replaced with large glass and steel boxes with no outdoor decks, patios or green spaces. Oh, there are still many beautiful single family wood frame, Tudor, Victorian, and Craftsman style homes in town. Those were the ones we lived in as group houses in the 60s and 70s. And only the original owners or the tech-rich can now afford them. But to accommodate the influx of tech workers fleeing San Francisco builders are creating sterile, nearly identical mega housing boxes.
Photo by Guillaume Bolduc on Unsplash
The soul of the city is gone. In place of quirky playfulness, creativity, and well, beauty, there are steel, concrete and glass boxes and “safe” streets where one can no longer shop at quaint establishments, many of which no longer exist because there is no parking anywhere near them… and the pandemic took out many more.
My experience with concrete boxes
FBI headquarters courtesy wiki
Los Angeles County Courthouse National Registry courtesy of Wiki
I, and both my parents, worked in government buildings. My first job was with the Los Angeles Planning Commission. Those types of structures are not there to inspire. They are simply designed to provide a place for someone to be a productive employee. They are not human scale. In fact, there is nothing to suggest humanity about them.
If you look to nearly every government building in every major city – not the City Halls, which often have more interesting architectural features that speak of the history and culture of the area – you’ll see that they are primarily concrete blocks that look not much different from, again, local jails.
So what does that say about the sterile, repetitive housing architecture in my town? Are these apartments there to simply house good little worker bees who go to work in similar sterile buildings? And considering most of these apartments are beyond the affordability of many of the people who actually live here, not to mention the homeless, what is their purpose, exactly?
How to bring more beauty into your life
Photo by David Edelstein on Unsplash
If we are just resigned to having to live with this kind of new world (I can’t bring myself to call it “brave” as it’s not brave and the association with that phrase is just too scary) maybe we can each strike a blow for beauty. If you’re old enough to remember the British series, The Prisoner, (one of my favorites from the 1960s) you remember the opening scene where Prisoner #1967 says, “I am not a number! I am a free man!” Beauty frees us from the prison of conformity.
A personal way to bring more beauty into our lives is to create it in our living spaces. That will look differently for each of us. But if our dwellings reflect the colors we love, the shapes, elements, textiles, ornaments or artworks that speak to our soul, we are declaring our humanity…and our individuality.
Photo by Todd Turner on Unsplash
Photo by Stephanie Klepacki on Unsplash
Another very significant way to experience beauty is to simply be in nature. That might involve going somewhere to see the snow on a mountain, a flock of birds, the powerful arc of a rolling wave on the ocean. Or it might be as simple as nurturing the maidenhair fern in your kitchen window or the hydrangeas in the pot by your front door, or watching your vegetable garden grow.
When we experience the beauty that exists in nature, we connect with the rhythms and the cycles of life. We connect with something bigger than ourselves.
Our daily statement of beauty
Photo by Danny Lines on Unsplash
Photo by Vasile Stancu on Unsplash
Maybe that’s why I write about fashion. It is one area of life that each of us can claim for ourselves. It’s where we can declare who we are in the most personal way. And, yes, sometimes it’s difficult. Pressure to conform from environment and cultural dictates, (not to mention the ever-present impact of the media and social media) can cause us to lose sight of who we are. It can also dampen our enthusiasm to explore and express the parts of ourselves we want to express at different times of our lives.
But doing so is a gift that we can give to ourselves every day. Your version of beauty doesn’t have to be mine. But if it makes you feel harmonious, joyful, authentic, and elevated, you are also giving that gift to the world.
[I invite you to explore how to better understand your version of beauty, your taste, and your style through my new online course, Discovering Your Inner Style, an Adventure in Dressing Authentically.]
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