Experiencing beauty

12/1

It is important to distinguish between emotional, physical, or spiritual sensations when experiencing beauty. Several explanations posited by my fellow students suggest one experiences an outpouring of positive emotions in response to sensual experience when reacting to beauty. I find a few faults in such an explanation. To start, not everything I consider beautiful is experienced through my senses. Would memories be considered beautiful? Perhaps when people say a memory is beautiful, they really only mean that the past event was beautiful then and the memory itself does not currently contain the memory’s former beauty. Fine. Would imaginations be considered beautiful? Events we conjure in our minds that have never occurred in reality are often labeled as beautiful, yet lack any true sensual interaction. I would argue there is beauty in imagined things, whether or not our senses are involved in perceiving the imagination. 

Additionally, when I find myself before something I consider beautiful, I would not dare describe my emotional reaction as strictly positive. We discussed the idea of ‘numinous’ when Dr. Redick probed at the emotional philosophy. I was also thinking along the same lines. While many of my emotions are positive—happiness, calmness, rest, etc—I also felt emotions few consider pleasant—longing, loneliness, shallowness. Though unpleasant emotions accompany my experience, I never doubt the beauty of what I behold; on the contrary, these pains increase my surety that what I behold is truly beautiful. In fact, emotions do not contain the full breadth of my experience. 

Perhaps a clear example may be of help here. Let me describe the beauty of a sunset. As I gaze into the blazing sky of color, from brilliant clouds glowing pink to the fiery red of the western horizon to the deep violet of the sky’s zenith, a deep sense of peace fills my being. Emotionally, I am at ease. Physically, I feel relaxed. Spiritually, (if you allow me to use that word, or if not, then ‘in my deepest sense’) I seem to be recognizing this ‘good’ or ‘right’ that I can hardly describe. Along side with peace, I have joy. Emotionally, I am happy. Physically, I am experiencing a sense of pleasure. Spiritually, this ‘good’ is gladly acknowledged and welcomed. 

Amidst peace and joy, another sensation is seizing my being. It is harder to label, but obvious to describe. Emotionally, there is a longing in my heart. Physically, a slight tension plays in contrast with my ease and pleasure, almost like the feeling of suspense. Spiritually, the ‘good’ I recognize seems to be out of reach. In the face of beauty, I become uncomfortably aware of my own inability to grasp the entirety of beauty. The depth and richness of present beauty exposes within my heart my own shallowness, smallness, and lack of beauty. Along side this hollow sensation, I experience a deep sense of isolation. This loneliness is felt most strongly, as you would guess, when I am alone. One student in class recited a quote from the author of 'Into The Wild’ which succinctly summarizes such a feeling: “Beauty is meaningless unless it is shared."