Is there ever a time when beauty should fall from our lives or when it ceases to have meaning?
As a prisoner in Auschwitz, desperate every day simply to survive? In the FSB detention cells of Kherson?
Other situations and places come to mind – it is hard to imagine beauty offering solace anywhere power is absolute. But even in those regions of boundless suffering, comradeship and thus love can flourish, that priceless and most cherished variety of beauty.
But what about those of us unconfined and leading lives rich in normal routines – how might beauty help us endure and offer resistance to increasing chaos and cruelty?
I know only that I find its consolation in books, dogs, foxes, birds, the sea, light, work, weights, writing, movies, my marriage, friends, family, in the courage of others, in prayer – for me, beauty is neither sedentary nor rare. It is governed neither by ideology nor by fashion. It occurs out there and does me good in here.
Beauty keeps me steady on my feet and makes parts of life wondrous – it is practical, and it offers transcendence.
I hope you have found those qualities of beauty that sustain you and will do so in the months to come.
