Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Beauty

On Beauty (I wish I had more to report)

I have a definition for Good and one for leadership.

Good: Something a living thing does to improve its situation over doing nothing at all.

Leadership: Knowing best and getting others to do it.

My muse whispered these to me and I awoke with a start and wrote them down. I am trying to get my muse to give me one for “Beauty.“ After that perhaps one on “Truth.”

Beauty is more than an elegance of harmony and structure. It is more like a tune that catches your ear, like some of the hymens we sing in church. In writing it is a synthesis of dialogue, exposition and rhythm…I know this isn’t a definition. Sometimes something beautiful comes off my pen. It is usually poetry. I am working on short stories and novels and to date I have nothing beautiful to report. All I can really say about it that I know it when I see it. I see many more examples written by others than I do written by myself.

Sometimes I find it in the Darnedest of places. For Example in Clausewitz’s book on War there are some beautiful threads. The entire work isn’t particularly inspiring but it has some rare moments. For the most part it is ponderous and boring. I was required to read it in an earlier life and ninety-nine percent is like listening to a professor speaking in a monotone. Then suddenly he will explode into a rich vein and discuss how a leader must carry a moral responsibility for those who follow and the heaviness of that burden. His words give insight into the pain of carrying such a burden when someone is beat down, tired, exhausted, harassed, hungary, thirsty and suffering from medical issues that in the midst of all this rises up and carries an organization to the next level. He explains things happening under the pressure of a wartime tempo that even professional soldiers can go for a career and never experience or appreciate. It is definitely one of those books you have to get into in order to mine just a few nuggets by they are rich indeed.

I think any definition of beauty will have to address the fact that when you look at something beautiful it is actually shining a light inside you that illuminates, that resonates and is profoundly illuminating. It might be the smile of the Mona Lisa, a portrait of by a graphic artist or a piece of sculpture or a scaled down reproduction of something or other. Anyway it makes you say “Wow!” that is awesome. It’s the “Wow Factor” when we see something in art or read something in literature, that is ten times greater than the sum of the parts. Immediately we want a closer look and that is good but to really see it you have to step back. That’s what they tell you at a museum, stand back and look. I think it’s a forest for the trees thing. If you get too close and wrapped up in the details you lose sight the effect it is intended to produce.

I’m still no closer to a definition. If anyone out there has one I’d like to hear it. Keep listening for your muse and when he/she starts talking you start writing. To heck with whatever else you have to be working on at the minute. Even if the spirit leads you down an uncomfortable path, make the keys hop, the touch pad tango or the pencil scribble.