Jack Piller
Elisha Emerson
English 110
29 November 2018
What is Beauty?
In today’s society everyone is constantly being told what to like and what is “in”, that they lose track of the things that truly matter to them. A way to break the norm of the pressure from society is to find the things that are beautiful to you whether that be on an individual level or on a larger scale like a community. In my case I have been lucky to find beauty on both an individual level as well from a community. The way I find individual beauty is by getting to spend time at my dad’s cabin in Maine, where I am surrounded by the beautiful outdoors.On a community level, I saw the most beauty in my own community, during my senior season of football. The support from the community was overwhelming and was truly incredible to be a part of. To help further explain what beauty is we took time in class to read Armstrong’s article “La Bella Vita”, in which he discusses the way we process beauty in our lives. In addition to Armstrong’s essay, the class made and listened to podcast about beauty to help give different perspectives on how people view beauty.
I have always been the type of person who likes to spend a lot of time outdoors and thought of nature as a thing of beauty. I always felt myself being drawn to the outdoors as a kid and the first time that I went to my dad’s cabin in Maine, I knew that I was meant to be there.
There is something about being surrounded by nothing but nature allows me to take a step away from my life and just take in the true beauty of what the world has to offer. In the article “La Bella Vita” by John Armstrong, he talks about a German poet Schiller and what his opinions are on beauty and he says, “For Schiller, true beauty is whatever speaks powerfully to both sides of our nature at the same time. When we find something beautiful, we are called towards a vision of harmonious perfection. This is not only a quality in the object, but a longing in ourselves”(Armstrong). When I am in Maine, I find myself not longing for a specific object but instead I am searching for the feeling that I get when I am there. As soon as the car pulls down the old beat up gravel road and I can see the house I am filled with an overwhelming sense of peace. I am able to do and explore things that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to if I was home. Whether that be going on a kayak ride by myself in the lake or going on a hike through the mountains, I am able to find my true self and just be alone in my own thoughts. I find that being here is like my own form of therapy, all of my problems go away and I just get to enjoy the true beauty that is surrounding me. The fact that I can only get up to the cabin a handful amount of times makes me appreciate the beauty of it all a lot more.
I was able to relate my experience with nature and the love of the outdoors specifically to Kate’s podcast. In Kate’s podcast she interviewed Leo, who is a marine science major. In her podcast, Kate asked Leo about something so beautiful that it made him cry. Leo responded to that by telling a story about the time that he went on a camping trip to the Utah desert. During the trip he was there during monsoon season and he got to witness lighting up close and it led him to tears. Leo also talked about how beautiful nature in general is, in which I felt an immediate connection to him even though I have never met him I could tell by his voice that he has a passion for nature like I do. Another podcast that I was able to relate my experiences with was John’s podcast, where he interviewed his friend Will. Will talked about a big oak tree that is starting to change color. Will talked about how he would take some time out of his day and just admire the tree. It gave him a moment during his busy life to just admire something beautiful and forget about all the things that he had going on. I relate to this because I feel the same exact way when I am up in Maine, all of my problems just disappear for a brief moment and I can just take in the beauty that is in front of me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asDGYDNXt4Y
Beauty is not just an individual thing but it is something that a whole community can come together and create. I am lucky enough to say that something like that happened in my own community at home. In my community high school football is something that everyone is able to get behind whether or not they went to school there or have a son on the team. Every friday night from the beginning of September until the beginning of December no matter if the game is home or away there was always a huge crowd. During the games I would sometimes look up at the bleachers and just be amazed by how many people came to watch us play and root us on.
After the games were over I would have little kids and parents that I didn’t even know come up to me and congratulate me. The atmosphere was amazing around the town, restaurants gave the whole team free food and teachers even let us leave class early to get ready for games.
My team was able to win the state championship my last two years of high school and in order to get championship rings we needed to raise over twenty thousand dollars each year. A fund page was set up to raise money for the rings and within a couple weeks we passed our target goal for money raised. I found this to be the truest form of beauty in a community being able to raise that much money so fast for a group of kids. Former students at the school were donating as well as other members that were just in the community. To be able and live through a whole community gelling together for a group of high school kids and creating a sense of beauty and pride is something that I will never forget.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ_KdYofJRg
In Armstrong’s essay he talks about Schiller and how there are two major components to beauty. The two being the ‘sense’ drive which is “which lives in the moment and seeks immediate gratification” and the ‘form’ drive, “the inner demand for coherence over time, for abstract understanding and rational order”. The sense drive is all about how craving the actual object right away, while the form drive the more responsible side of decision making and think things through more than the sense drive. While Schiller may believe in these methods to beauty in the the article “Why does Beauty Exist” by Jonah Lehrer he talks about what he thinks beauty is. Leher when talking about what he sees beauty as says, “I see beauty as a form of curiosity that exists in response to sensation, and not just information…It’s what happens when we sense something missing”. Leher has a different view on what beauty is, he talks more about how beauty is more of a curiosity thing and that we seek beauty when we feel like something is missing in our lives. Neither one of these authors can be proven right or wrong that is what is the “beauty” in beauty.
The chase to find true beauty is a journey that is different for everyone. Beauty is special because you never know when you are going to find it. That’s what makes beauty so crazy is that it is all up to the person’s perspective. Armstrong has a quote that describes beauty in his mind that says,“The only popular thought about beauty today, the one that has the widest currency in the world, is the idea that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder”(Armstrong 1). Beauty truly does “lie in the eye of the beholder and is great because it can’t be scientifically proven or solved in an equation it is completely left up to your own judgement. In my life I am able to find beauty on a personal level with my dad’s Maine cabin, and as a community with my my hometown’s amazing support. Beauty is all about ignoring the “social norm’ and just beating to your own drum and finding beauty in whatever makes you happy.
