(Taking a cue from Marcie, my post this week is also about beauty. Go figure. I guess it’s our impromptu theme.)
Since the time of Aristotle, a consistent means of learning has been through the use of division and explanation. If you are given something – an organism, a political structure, a philosophy, or a math problem – you can break it down into understandable and teachable “chunks.” The very structure of our semester is predicated on this idea of “building blocks” of thought. Starting from foundational concepts, we can frame an entire view on a subject through the steady application of new, bite-sized material.
To compartmentalize a subject is a step in communicating it. But this process of breaking down and rebuilding ought to create just as large and wondrous a structure as when we started on that new topic. Don’t let dissection of a subject take the life out of it.
As you may have heard such a quip before, “Dissecting a joke is like dissecting a frog. It dies.” You can learn more about the functions and means of a joke by explaining it and theorizing about it, but those theories don’t make you funny. Applied more broadly, when exploring compositional elements, don’t lose the holistic wonder of that topic..
This applies to every subject I can think of, be it the mystery of science, the excitement of politics, or the marvels of language. But I think this applies very poignantly and explicitly to the concept of beauty. If “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” then I most want to uncover the beauty of life.
I don’t ever want to delve so deeply into the compositional elements of beauty in a scene, a subject, or a person that I cannot rise again into a view it’s fullness and wonder.
We are learning reasoning processes and evaluation mechanisms. I believe that it is absolutely vital to be able to think, communicate, and know the facts of your stated discipline. But I think being able to plumb the depths of a subject also carries with it an understanding of the time and place to apply that subject.
Just as there are times that warrant our understanding and application of a subject, there are other times that warrant another subject, or perhaps a more meta-level perspective. There are days when a chemist should eschew chemistry for photography. There are days when a photographer should eschew photography to simply admire a scene or converse with a friend. There are days when a political science major can appreciate the subtle complexities and beauty of chemistry.
Living this life means being able to understand what lens to apply at a given time … not just the development of one particularly well-honed lens. It also means being able to step back from the collection of facts and processes into the awe-inspiring wonder of how utterly beautiful things are. As one of my favorite poets, Kahlil Gibran, wrote in Sand and Foam, “When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.”
Pursue beauty. But in your seeking to understand its essence, do not cut it away from life itself.
Originally published in the Willamette Collegian.