Beauty

Hmm. There it is. There he is. There she is.
You can't really help yourself, you must keep looking.
You understand what it means to be held captive, to be riveted, to be spellbound.
The colors, the movements, the shape, the lines, the sound, the fabric, the many facets that are remarkable to your senses - they all collide and converge to trap you, right there, as you are, and you are helpless to be free.
Moreover, you have no desire to be free. No, you are a happy and willing captive, for the conquerer is living within your own heart.

This, my friends, is what I believe we experience when we encounter the beautiful.

Please, allow me to preface with the usual form of disclaimer: I am NOT Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Karol Wojtyla or any other person of consequence who has something to say about beauty.
That being said, I do have eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, fingers, and a heart, and I do live in this world.
That does not make me an expert, but it does give me all the cause in the world to speak of the beautiful, for it is all around us and taken up in the world.

Some questions, pehaps, ought to be considered.
What is beauty?
What is "objectively beautiful"?
Is there such a thing?
Is beauty truly in the "eye of the beholder," or is there something more to this idea?
Is beauty simply an idea, or is it some type of reality?

Now, to be fair, I don't think these questions can be fully treated on this blog. However, I want them to be present in your mind when we speak of "beauty" because I believe the answers to be fundamental to our understanding of this concept and this reality.
To begin with, I would say that there is indeed an objective beauty, or at least an objective way to define what is beautiful. I mean "objective" here as "true" or "inherent" or "real." I would also say that our individual affinities and what we find familiar certainly do affect what is beautiful to each person, so that there is of course the subjective sense of beauty as well. However, I would also argue that overall, the objective truth of something beautiful is prior to, or has priority over, what is found subjectively beautiful. And I believe beauty is both an idea and a reality. This is because, above all else, beauty is personal. As something which is both an idea and a reality, beauty is something that we encounter. It is both the tangible reality which we see or feel or know in some way through our senses and the draw and desire that takes hold within us and makes its home in our mind and heart.

Consider something that you do find beautiful, whether it be a seashell or a woman or a symphony, etc... What is it that moves you? That captures you? Do you walk over to the orchestra and say, "you are beautiful!" before they have begun to play? Or is it rather that once the music reaches you and you enounter the movements, then you know it to be beautiful. To say that something like an idea is personal is to personify it in some sense. It is different than the personification of a spoon or some inanimate object, because this personality is more specific to the relation it has with you.

Perhaps I am drawn more to dark hair and you to light hair, as far as what we find beautiful or attractive. Both can be said to be good. Yet one reaches into my heart in a different way than it does to yours. What is important is that both of us can be aware that there is something outside of us or beyond us that is drawing us to it. What is also important is that we recognize that although our responses to this object are different based on the subjective desires we have, the goodness of the thing itself is the starting point and presence of the beauty that is inherent in the object.

It is vital that what is beautiful is good, because what is beautiful is something that displays "what it is meant to be," and fulfills to some extent the goodness that was always present within it. For example, let us take a table. I have a little side table in the living room which was made rather simply, out of something close to cardstock, and because it was made without real wood, it has little appeal as something of beauty. However, I also have a little side table in my bedroom, and this table is made out of wood. You can see the pattern of the wood throughout the table, and it has been stained so that there is a rich color to it. Both of these tables serve the same purpose. Yet one seems to "be" more of what a side table "ought to be," while the other seems to display little value in the sense of fulfilling its potential.

Another example could be when something is old or broken. When placed next to a new version, the object will typically show how limited it is in revealing what it was meant to be, and the fullness of its particular potential. Now, this must be qualified both in terms of what attracts an individual and in terms of what we mean by potential. For example, I may have a strong affinity for old and comfortable things, and find them most comforting and desirable when they are worn in and remind me of home. Therefore, an old couch might actually seemt to fulfill its "goodness" to me over and above a new one, because a couch is meant to be sat on and used. Yet, another could argue that the new couch is beautiful while the old one is threadbare and ugly.

So we cannot outright define something as "beautiful" simply if it is the "best it can be," but of course we can understand how there is some truth in the point.

We also need to consider what attraction or affinity mean. To be drawn to something means to recognize a good that we believe would be good for us, such as something that would make us happy, improve us, or be helpful. However, the highest attraction to things is when we can see the good in them for themselves, or of themselves, rather than something for us. In this case, we want to be with it or in it or participate with it - not only because it will make us happy (although that will probably be a nice side-effect), but simply because it is a good in and of itself. For instance, when the sunlight shines into a room and we can see all the dust particles in the air. Children will often try to catch them or at least stand in the sun to be part of this "magical" phenomenon. This is not because the child thinks that they are going to be able to hold onto the particles or that this experience is going to make them happier or better... it is simply because they see what they understand as good and beautiful and they want to be part of it.

Again, consider a beautiful scene, perhaps a sandy isolated beach or a far reaching field at the base of a mountain. These are typically things that stir in us a desire to participate. We don't want to put the sand in a bottle and think that we've taken what is beautiful for ourselves. We want to lay in it. We want to dig our toes in and feel the warm sand on top and the cooler sand below. We want to lay in that field and smell the flowers and hear the bees and feel the tickle of the tall grass. We want to accept the beauty around us into our hearts and into our memories. Certainly, we may want to try to take a souvenir with us, but we understand that to be a tangible memory of a beautiful experience, or the experience of the beautiful, rather than the containment of the beauty itself.

So we are dealing with a concept that requires our physical presence and the presence of something else which draws us, but also with the reality of things which in and of themselves are good, and possess a truth and therefore a beauty which we desire to be a part of and to know in more depth. This is ultimately the beauty we encounter in other people. When we come to know and love our family, friends and spouses, it is because we have first seen or experienced some amount of the beauty proper to the person, and have therefore been drawn more deeply into knowing the truth of their personal goodness. It is very hard to be a friend to someone who you cannot find this experience of the good in. It is hard not to be a friend to someone whose beauty profoundly moves you.

There is so much more to say about this, so perhaps I will attempt a bit of a series on the concept. For now, let us consider what it means to encounter the beauty of God. Is the love of our parents something we know as beautiful? What about the common prayer of the Church? Perhaps the family in their community? Are we left dumbstruck by the Eucharist? Do we sense the sacramentality of the world around us in its very nature as beautiful? Even driving through a busy city where there is far more concrete than there is grass, am I not still caught up in gratitude and longing when I see a sunset or a storm roll in? What does it even mean for man to yearn to be with the beautiful?

Let us consider St. Augustine's beautiful quote:
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."