Beauty in Spontaneity and Order

12/1

Over the course of this class, it seems as though two positions have been established. One position finds beauty in order, while the other finds beauty in spontaneity. Beauty is not exclusive to either, but different forms of art seem to distinctly fall into one or the other position. Bach compared to Coltrane. Ballet compared to rugby. Rote ritual compared to random reaction. Beauty can be found in all these things. How is that?

Without going too far into my rambles, I’d like to look at each position as it relates to the character of God. First, God has shown Himself to be a God of order. Within the first chapter of the Bible, God brings definition to the void and the waters. Throughout the Bible, God establishes Himself as the supreme authority over all creation. In the Old Testament, God gives the Law to the Israelites and sets them apart as His holy people. Paul goes to great lengths to explain how the God of the Bible has a sovereign plan for the elect. God is the One who establishes order. So then, I believe that beauty can be planned, ordered, and calculated. 

On the flip side, God has also revealed His glorious creativity. Yes, while people love and need order in their lives, there is a time and a place for everything. Sometimes, people appreciate the unplanned, unexpected, and seemingly random. I don’t think God opposes this in man. In fact, I believe that one of God’s greatest blessings to mankind is the capacity to create, invent, and imagine new things. He even encourages such behavior when the psalmist tells the whole earth to “Sing to the Lord a new song” in Psalm 96. 

Things get a little messy for me at this point. Yes, God is creative; hence, creation. Humans are also creative, but not in the same way. There is a significant difference, and I think its source lies in God’s omniscience. Let me try to explain. When God creates something, He does so with perfect knowledge and understanding of the created thing, Himself, and His sovereign plan for all mankind. God does not create anything meaningless. (I think. I don’t see how he could make something meaningless. The purpose of all creation ultimately is to glorify God. Why would He make something that doesn’t bring him glory in some way? Anyway.) Anything God creates, then, fits into His sovereign plan for creation that He has revealed in part to man through Jesus Christ and the Bible. Simply put, all God’s creative power is also ordered. 

Man’s creative power is limited. Humans have built fairly impressive things: spaceships, the internet, the wheel, Jazz, socks. However, humans cannot create anything ex nihilo. People are also limited in their knowledge. Whenever God acts, it is in line with His sovereign plan. Human beings don’t have sovereign plans with which they can add their creation to. This means that man can create things that are meaningless. But seeing as though things without meaning are contrary to the nature of God, they cannot be beautiful. 

I think I’m going too far off topic diving into what has meaning and what doesn’t. Let me return to discussing how spontaneity can be beautiful. Along with creativity, the ability to learn and discover is also one of the greatest blessings God has given man. Because God is all knowing, the more man learns, the better he can reflect God. In a sense, creating something new or witnessing something spontaneous or improvised unfold is a way of learning. God, of course, already knows whatever man is doing, has done, or will do. He also knows anything that could have been or could be, so God doesn’t learn from human creation. In that light, any form of human creation is simply man manifesting something that God already knows and has created. So, when humans see something spontaneous and declare it to be beautiful, they’re right. 

In summary, order is beautiful because God is ordered; He is holy, sovereign, and omniscient. Spontaneity or improvisation is beautiful because it draws us into God’s creativity and wisdom. 

"Don’t overlook the beauty of work"

12/1

Here are some thoughts I have on an article with title. The link is posted below.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2015/11/18/overlook-beauty-work/76014038/

I've always known that work was a good thing, but I often struggle to really believe that. Being raised in a hard working, protestant, german family living outside of Washington DC, the work-idolizing capital of the world, has forced me to recognize the necessity and benefit of labor. On the flip side, though, I have also been raised in a world and culture that demonizes work of any kind and is constantly shoving amusement down my throat in the forms of video games, YouTube, TV, and other time wasting activities. Even reading can be amusement. And to me, the word "amusement" carries a negative connotation. To amuse is to distract from something worthwhile.

I, unfortunately, am in love with amusement. I'll waste my entire day sitting around watching cat videos for a cheap laugh rather than going hard to work on something of importance to earn a deep sense of accomplishment. Perhaps I need to spend more time reflecting on the "beauty of work," as this article phrases it.

Beauty originates from and points man to God. Work also comes from God; in Genesis 1-2, God assigned Adam with the task of tending the garden and naming the animals and subduing the earth and multiplying. All these things are jobs, and the carrying out thereof is work. So work is biblical and from God. It's pre-fall, which means work is a good thing.  Finally, God's commands are blessings and His blessing are commands, which means work is actually a blessing.

But how can work be considered beautiful? How do I see God in work? Well, this might be more of a stretch. I guess generally, work is the completing of tasks and goals. In that way, work highlights the character of God that is ordered and intentional. For more specific examples of actual vocations, I'd have to see God or the Gospel somehow in the job to consider it beautiful.

Most of this is just rambling. My point is that I agree with this article. Work is good and can even be beautiful and I should try to remember that more often.

The story I see in "Sleeper"

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This is the story I see unfolding while I listen to "Sleeper" by Snarky Puppy. 

0:00

I see nothing. Only darkness. Now, a light. One ceiling light with one dim lightbulb. Yellow light passes through dusty air onto the back of a man. A black man, late twenties perhaps, though his face suggests I’m off by decades. He sits alone at a table. He leans forward, elbows on table, eyes forward. His bloodshot eyes stare out the window before him. All he sees is a brick wall. The city is quiet at this hour. It’s too late to be considered night, too early to be called morning. Dirty plates and empty bottles are not overwhelming, but stand out simply because the apartment is so empty otherwise. The man continues to stare. His face is blank. His soul is crying. He is alone.

What reeks? Is it anger? Is it fear? Is it loneliness? Is it abandonment?

0:58

His head falls to rest on his arms. His back rises as he takes in a deep breath. He sighs.

1:06

A crowded street. The sun has broken the horizon, but not the skyline. Cold air is stinging nostrils. Everyone is going somewhere. He walks, just another face in the crowd. Hands in the pockets of his worn out Carhartt jacket, the beanie hat keeping his ears and head warm. His soul has been muted for now. Life calls, and work must be done. 

1:27

Here he is at work. Physical labor. Outdoor. Building, rebuilding, destroying. He’s the creator of the city, but the city is his boss.

1:35

The sun has risen now. Work continues. Coffee has been consumed. Others are now doing their jobs. Hard work. Cold work. It has to be done. Starting to get into the swing of the day. Life is in full stride…

2:15

The soul is whispering. Or perhaps it’s screaming, but is muffled. Work continues. The soul is combatted with focus on the task at hand. 

2:23

Noon hasn’t even come yet, but the man has been working for several hours already. Now he is focused. Now he has a handle on things. The city is humming. It’s finally worked off the fog of sleep. It sings in harmony to his industriousness (2:30). Complete focus. Stress now, but no time for rest. Stress is good. Pressure is motivation. The city continues to rise. He’s help build it. The whole city is singing back to him now (2:59). His soul follows the city’s lead.

3:02

What the hell is this? He’s working like a maniac. Efficiency. He’s a machine. His body is automatically carrying out tasks. Yet, there is no more restraint on his soul. They have separated themselves. The body continues to work. The soul is in turmoil. The mind ignores it. The city still hums along (3:08). 

3:22

The city is roaring. It seems like every single person in the city has left themselves and is working full tilt. Souls have been disregarded. The day is burning on. The city is completely alive. Is anyone in it, though?

3:41

Darkness again. Here’s the same man, sitting at his table. Elbows on table, now head in hands. The bottle in front of him is empty (it has been for at least three days). The room seems empty. His face is blank, his eyes are bloodshot. Was that his stomach growling, or his soul? (3:51)

4:00

His soul is soul is tired. It’s desperate. Something’s gotta give. It’s praying without words to…something. Silence on the other end. He’s reaching his wit’s end. He remains silent. He has nothing to say to himself. His soul continues to beg. 

4:33

His face animates. A furrowed brow, flared nostrils, quivering lip. Now rage. Now anguish. He jumps from his seat, flipping table, sending bottle flying. He turns to face the wall, beating both fists against it. His head rests against it as well. He’s weeping. He falls to his knees, body shaking. Tears fall profusely from his cheeks. He’s alone. Just for one moment, the city seemed to follow his lead. Now it’s slipping back to itself, out of his hands. 

4:48

A crowded street again. Another day. Cold air, stinging nostrils and eyes. Everyone else is going to work. Everyone else feels the sting. Yet, the sun seemed to be a little brighter, a little higher today. Spring must be only weeks away. Maybe. The city is alive again. Back to work. Efficiency. The soul is fighting. It’s drowning. It’s thrashing like a caged lion. The city tries to drown out the soul’s voice, but it’s screaming now (5:48). This is war. 

Man's desires and God as Beauty

12/1

While beauty brings about peace and joy, any exposure we have of it is accompanied by discontentment. All encounters with beauty seem to only be teases. Why is this the case? I’m going to go back to C.S. Lewis. Let’s think about desire. Human beings desire beauty. I don’t mean humans desire to be beautiful, i.e. look attractive. I mean there is a deep desire in all our hearts to watch the proverbial sunset forever. We desire to not only witness beauty, but also partake of it. We wish to share in beauty eternally. Not only that, but we wish to engage beauty fully with others. The beauty we sensually experience in life has two significant problems: it is temporary and limited. Sunsets are beautiful, but they are not beautiful enough to satisfy what we long for. The sun inevitably sets, and we can never see the entire extent of the sky or horizon. 

I agree again with C.S. Lewis when he suggests that humans do not have desires that cannot be fulfilled. Every hole we seem to have in our innermost being has a perfect fit that fills the void completely. For beauty, there must be something that satisfies our longing. Things we call beautiful only contain traces of the real Beauty, or maybe act as pointers back to that ultimate puzzle piece our spirits lack. 

Some may stop here and question the implications of the conclusion I point to. If there is some ultimate, eternal sunset, who is to say it will always captivate us? What if we grew tired of constantly staring at the sky? What if its effect wears off, or our hearts grow a tolerance to the perfect beauty? I doubt these questions have merit. Like I said, the beauty we long for is eternal and ultimate. I don’t think it would be possible to exhaust something infinite. If we were able to tire of this beauty, I feel that means we had experienced everything the beauty had to show or offer. The nature of infinity does not allow for us to understand its entirety. If someone were to suggest to me that a thousand finite beauties were better than one infinite beauty, I would suggest that person weigh a thousand to infinity. 

As I have gently asserted, I believe there is an ultimate Beauty. It is some noun that perfectly satisfies our insatiable thirst we discover we have after seeing a sunset. If your mind is anything like mine, language like “ultimate noun” hints at God. In the first class, Dr. Redick asked me if I knew what Beauty was. Ashamedly, I replied “I don’t know.” After taking time to reflect, I now know without a doubt. In class, I was confused whether or not Beauty was God Himself or something of the Lord’s creation, some distinct entity that satisfied our longing and pointed us to God. The latter option seems unnecessary and unlikely. If God were to create some thing that perfectly met our desire of Beauty, we would only recognize that it was beautiful because it reflected the perfect, holy, ultimate God. In other words, we would only know it was beautiful because God was beautiful, thus making God our standard of beauty. Additionally, I cannot imagine a place where man could encounter both this theoretical creation called “Beauty” and the Lord, and focus on anything other than God the Father. 

I realized that what I was attempting to do with separating "Beauty" from God was make "Beauty" God in its own right. I was simply renaming God. Instead, I should have realized that God is Beauty, and not try to make Beauty God. For God is far more than beautiful; He is also loving, just, powerful, wise, and all the other qualities we attribute to Him.

Experiencing beauty

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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."

Subjectivity and objectivity

12/1

Is beauty universal or individual? Well, this is difficult to answer. It is obvious that some people find "X" beautiful, while others abhor "X" and instead find beauty (quite provocatively) in "Y". This, of course, drives those who prefer "X" mad. Both groups, however, agree that "Z" is undoubtedly atrocious while W is unquestionably beautiful. What the heck am I saying? Some beauty seems to be subjective, but certain things either have universal beauty or un-beauty (whatever the opposite of beauty is). So what might the answer be?

I tried to reconcile beauty’s duel appearance with a compromise of sorts. I argue that beauty is objective; it is an ultimate standard or desire. Beauty in itself is perfect and constant. Humans, on the other hand, are not. Human perception of beauty is, to a certain extent, subjective. Some people can see beauty in things like snakes and spiders, creatures I see worthy of extermination. But who am I to say they are wrong? Is there anything inherently wrong with a spider or snake? No. I simply don’t like them for whatever reason. Yet, there are things no sane person would ever consider beautiful. No witness to a murder has ever described their horrific scene as beautiful. Nor does any individual or culture allow for any recognition of beauty in rape or theft. 

So, beauty is objective and man’s perception of beauty is at least slightly subjective.

Humans Being

Humans Being

I often find myself doing.  Doing homework, doing life, and if I am in the process of not doing much I sure as hell am thinking about doing much.  It's exhausting and distracting where is the life in always striving to do things?  When can rest ever come if I am always conforming to the pressure to do?  Some say, "there isn't rest, not until your dead, so do all you can now."  Do so much that when you get to that point you can do more.  I've been wrestling with this idea of doing and being learning the difference between laziness and being, and learning the difference between working hard using your body and mind the way it was designed and doing in a striving/vain manner.  I am learning to recognize the difference between working hard in a place of being and doing from a place of striving, and one of those indicators is my encounter with beauty!  I find it most difficult, near impossible, to admire, let alone encounter, beauty when I am distracted by doing things in a striving manner.  It's as if I am totally zoned out just moving through life without any recognition of everything happening around me I am so driven by pride and vain efforts towards some thing that I think is worth it.  This reminds me of Martin Buber's discussion on the relationships between people and people/things "I and Thou vs. I and It" "I, It" is a perfect demonstration of the effect of someone who is doing in a striving manner, never present always seeing the relationship as a means to the striving persons end.  However, when being, there is a total and complete presence which opens an individuals eyes to beauty and encounters with beauty.  This next thought however, is somewhat contradictory to what I was saying, but Beauty calls us into being it demands all in that moment whatever we had fixed on our mind, whatever we were doing it ceases for the overcoming power of Beauty.  It is an interesting paradox how there is a need for one to reside in a place of being in order to be opened to beauty or Beauty, and yet the idea that it does not matter if a person is in a place of being or doing, that one can get derailed from their vain efforts of doing by Beauty.  Both equally call us to back to our nature the place we were designed to live from, Humans Being not Humans doing.