The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty

[thomryng]

I am hopeful. Some will say I'm just being blindly optimistic. But these words sing to me:

The beautiful wounds, but this is exactly how it summons man to his final destiny.

... to reject the impact produced by the response of the heart in the encounter with beauty as a true form of knowledge would impoverish us and dry up our faith and our theology. We must rediscover this form of knowledge; it is a pressing need of our time.

The music had such an extraordinary force of reality that we realized, no longer by deduction, but by the impact on our hearts, that it could not have originated from nothingness, but could only have come to be through the power of the Truth that became real in the composer's inspiration.

Source.

Comments

???

[starkad67.livejournal.com]

"beautiful wounds" as "optimistic"???

Re: ???

[thomryng.livejournal.com]

Beauty can be so big that it pains your soul? Yeah, that idea appeals to my personal philosophy of art.

To hear someone normally described as boring and rigid say it is a source of optimism.

Life is Truth is Beauty?

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

I call it not into question. The Grace that keeps this world lets me watch my animals eat, even the irritable lizard munching gut-loaded mealworms (oh well) and the greedy indoor cats who are neutered anyway. I watch the flowers bloom hopeful in their fertility. We all are in ourselves beautiful somehow.

Some sail above all, and I recognize if not understand it; and some find beauty in the mundane. Which is the more difficult?

I don't understand the beauty of wounds. Should I work on that?

There might be similar beauty in my wasting cat who is not mine, scoffs at all food after 3 minutes, and cares naught but for cuddles. He is dying, no one knows why. I just hug him and make him comfortable. Best as I can tell. This has been going on for 2+yrs. already. How long do ya need to be martyred to a dyin' cat?! Shut up. Sorry. She wasn't supposed to show up.

Re: Life is Truth is Beauty?

[thomryng.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the beauty of wounds.

It's not the beauty of wounds, it's that beauty (noun) wounds (verb).

Re: Life is Truth is Beauty?

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

Oh, aye, marry aye.

Re: Life is Truth is Beauty?

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Beauty can be a goad, to drive us on to things, as much as it can be a snare, to entice us towards them. In either case, beauty can wound.

And, perhaps less cynically; there have been moments where the sheer beauty of a certain symphony has torn through the scar tissue which has surrounded a deep sorrow of mine and, exposing it to the light, allowed it to start to heal. I have wept at the pain of the beauty of music, and in that weeping, I have begun the journey to wholeness.

Re: Life is Truth is Beauty?

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

Yes. Well said. I hadn't thought of it that clearly. I must consider it.

[gislebertus.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say that I came across your journal and am intrigued by your thoughts, so I added you to my list.

Cheers.

[kingcadillac.livejournal.com]

I'm baffled, to be honest. How does this make you optimistic? What does it signify to you will happen? I see nothing very encouraging that he has an appreciation for art, or a certain elloquence. No doubt he has both. What of the rest of him?

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

I read the source; beautiful wounds, beautiful words, but then the gentleman is said to be eloquent. Beauty can make me cry but that is not a wound - it might make me aware of wounds I have; Beauty makes me aspire and be strong and believe, but the connection between pain and beauty is one I do not feel. I have not seen anyone made more noble or 'better' by pain. I do not see it as a sanctifier or something which makes inherent worth shine. I have only ever seen it crush the light in the eyes of gentle folk. Pain is my enemy except when it brings me warning, and if beauty caused me pain, I don't know what I would do.

I will read the message again and try to understand it better; as a light shone on the face of a man I am inclined to distrust, the message is in itself, beautiful.