Ralph Waldo Emerson said that truth, justice, and beauty are three sides of the same reality: the Holy Trinity. I take that affirmation to mean that awareness of one leads to awareness of the other two, and we can easily shift from awareness of one to awareness of the others.
If one cares about truth, one becomes concerned about what is just and one becomes aware of how awesome the universe is.
If one is concerned about justice, one cares about what is true and wants humanity to be in harmony with the universe, which holds a certain order.
If one feels at one with the universe and appreciates its beauty, one wants to understand how to live more fully in harmony with all life.
Pursuing truth, justice, and beauty requires us to maintain a balance between the three. We need to flow from one to the other smoothly. We need to integrate all three efforts into our daily lives.
But as modernization proceeds and our frontal lobe becomes larger and more dominant, it’s easy to forget about the pursuit of beauty. We become excessively task-oriented, focused on thinking about truth and pushing for justice.
So when I’m in the City I’m planning to cultivate my experience of beauty by setting aside at least one day a week to play, socialize, and commune with Mother Nature. In addition, I plan to take more real vacations, for at least a month at a time, and just wander -- travel with no real purpose other than the sheer joy of it.
I know I’ve made noises along this line before and to some degree, I’ve done it. But now I plan to stick with it more fully.
Unless some project seduces me…. (-:
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