Insist on Beauty as a Human Calling

So many websites and videos have come my way online in the last couple of days, and they are congealing into something. A friend shared an interview with poet John O'Donohue, described as a philosopher who "insisted on beauty as a human calling." That phrase grabbed my mind. 

You'd expect a poet to fervently defend such a concept. But why would anyone have to insist that beauty is a human calling? Shouldn't that be a given? Is it because we long ago accepted the adage, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? How can a poet embrace beauty as his life's calling when everyone's definition of beauty will be different? (This interview is well worth reading. O'Donohue's focus on the inner human landscape is one I plan to ponder.)

Another friend sent me a link to Nature 365, a site that posts a gorgeous video from nature each day. (Please click over and watch a couple of their brief videos!) Does it show my fragility that I long to view a calming video of nature each day? That I need to look at it all day, out my window? In today's ugly world, is beauty a salve? A distraction? An opiate? A dream of eternity? 

Our world seems to be engaging in and entertained with the ugly, more and more -- ugly behavior, ugly relationships, ugly words, ugly gestures, ugly news. When did we give up on beauty and decide, "It's no use. Ugly is winning"?

To be more specific, here's an excellent video by Keith Getty, church musician. I don't know much about the Gettys, and haven't used their music, but his message here is compelling -- we should be careful what we sing in worship, careful to sing of the beautiful, careful that we teach our children of the beautiful. The world will instruct them completely in the ugly. He describes Cecil Francis Alexander, poet and hymn-writer.  Dissatisfied with what children were singing in church, she set out to write songs for children herself, and gave us "All Things Bright And Beautiful" and "Once in Royal David's City." 

The fourth site I enjoyed this morning was an interview with Susan Wise Bauer, my favorite modern educator. Among other things, she emphasizes a parent's crucial role to constantly remind her children that the negative voices -- the words that tell them they're not good enough, they can't do it, they should doubt themselves -- are not the voices they should listen to. Those negative words are not the true inner voice. We can't block those voices, but we can recognize them for what they are. In other words, recognize the ugly voices inside us, and instead give more volume to the beautiful ones. This wisdom from Bauer touched me deeply because this is parenting that I can still do, in fact I can do it more, with adult children. They need to hear it as much now as they did ten years ago -- you are beautiful, God loves you, I love you, pursue what is beautiful in your life, pursue kindness and goodness, believe in yourself and your gifts, don't give in to the ugly. 

This is a human calling, and it's no surprise that the poets, when everyone else has forgotten, are the ones to remind us of it.