All Write, Already!

Most people are completely wrong. (This should not surprise anyone, really.) I was wrong until this most recent epiphany. I, like many others, though that Beauty was a trait, an adjective, a quality inherent to an object.

I don't think I've ever been so utterly convinced of something that was totally wrong as I was of this.

Beauty isn't a quality, it's an event; A fleeting one, at that. Usually it lasts no more than a few seconds, and that's if it lasts an entire second. In my experience it's a flashpoint thing, especially when it happens in people.

It's the sunrise blossoming out over the lake while you crusie along at ten knots. It's the lurch away from gravity, with the ground falling away below you. It's the glint in her eyes as she looks back over a bare shoulder at you, a mischeif of one sort or another loosed from her lips. It's the light framing her face just-so. It's the moment lips touch.

We talk about Beauty like it's something a person can develop in themselves. Actually, that's just aesthetics, attractiveness, and such like that. Beauty, you see, isn't her figure - it's the instant you see it, from just the right angle, in just the right light, with just the right context. So much has to align perfectly to make it so - but it happens time and again. Interestingly, love catalyzes it very effectively.

It's said of us that when we are in love, we pay more attention to the object thereof. Certainly this seems to be true, in my experience. But the side effect is that when we pay more attention to something, we see more of the moments of beauty that happen to/by/around that something.

I have recently experienced several of these moments; Many, many more than I experienced in the past few years. I realize part of what has been missing in my life was the experience of this force of inspiration and change. I need more of it, and so I need more of the things that I love to be in my life.

The good thing about knowing what you want and/or need, is that it becomes much easier to reach for it...