Beauty, Is

    I have often spoken about the endless variability and wonder that is human creativity.  Especially these days, when so much darkness seems to be gathering, when so much pain exists everywhere, I think its important for us to remember that we can, we do, create things of incredible beauty, often, all unknowingly.  These things we make are not all the products of wealth, or power, though sometimes they may be.   Very often the beauty that exists all around us every day, everywhere,  comes from the humblest of places. We need only open our eyes, and far more importantly, open our hearts, to see it.

                                                                           Kenya
     I will not weigh in on the psychology or sociology of all this. That, honestly, is for another post, at another time.  It is a simple, incontrovertible fact. We do create things of ineffable, inescapable loveliness. We do it constantly.  We do it regardless of where we are, or who we are. It has nothing to do with money, technology, race, sex, or age.  It has to do with something we bear inside ourselves.  Some might call it the soul, and I suppose that word serves, as well as any.
    The point is simply, we cannot help ourselves.  We are graceful, elegant creatures, who delight in manipulating the world around us.  We can, and seemingly must, take the raw nature of the planet we live in, and change it up, make it new, and see it differently.  In so doing, of course, we often create horrors. We cannot deny that.  But its essential to remember, that we also create glory.

                                                                         Japan.
    If you feel tired, bereft of feeling, or saddened beyond words at the insanities we throw upon each other for so little true reason, stop. Think. Look for just a moment at what we can, and still do create, every single day. Think about the wonders we are. Think about the wonders we may be, and move us forward to those days when we can acknowledge the wonder in each of us, freely.

                                                                           Kurdistan
     If we are going to face and conquer the challenges that loom in our near future, global warming, rising sea levels, the ever rising population, the coming clean water crisis; we must face it together.  And one of the ways we can do that, is to use this commonality we have to hand.  The way we clap things over us is a simple method of understanding each other, if we would only take the time to see it.  I'm not suggesting that Attire is the cure for cancer, or the Rosetta Stone.  It is, however, something we all use constantly, and as such is a readily available tool for greater understanding, because all of us use it, every single day.

 

                                                                   Serengeti Plain
           So, here, take a look, gasp, sigh, and see.  THIS is who we can be.
    This is who we are.

Young Rajasthani  Woman

                                                          Red Wing Crow Nation Man

                                                                  Inca Women and children

                                                  Last Shogun of Japan, Keiki Tokugawa

                                                                 Hopi Nation woman

 

Runway design, Gareth Pugh

                                                          Pakistani Groom                                                              

                                                            Modern Chinese woman

                                                    Aiden Shaw, model and porn actor.

                                                      Aboriginal woman, India

                                                             Spain, Traje de Luces

                                                                         Kenya

                                                                         Thailand