The following is a response paper that I wrote for my global studies literature class. It is a study of feminist rhetoric, and one of our first readings was of "Diotima"...a woman quoted by socrates in the days of ancient greece. She left not record of her work personally, but her teaching on the essences of love and beatuy were quite inspiring to me. This response took on "blog tone" about half way through so I thought I'd post it here...enjoy.
It’s maybe one of the biggest problems in our society. And yet it’s one of the things that makes the world go round. Beauty is something that is valued but also abused. It is sought after but also scorned. It is desired and sometimes counterfeited. It is defined so differently by people in the world that often something called “beautiful” can look downright ugly to a person just across the street.
And perhaps, it is this defining of beauty that makes something truly beautiful so hard to find or hard to appreciate. The way that we search for beauty is sometimes in direct conflict with the way to find something or someone that is truly beautiful.
Is beauty a sensation or an emotion?
Can it be seen or must it be thought?
Is it natural or is it produced?
Is it a physical form or a spiritual condition?
Beauty is the reason that people put billions of dollars every year into the fashion industry. Yet it is also the reason that people like the Amish return to the simplest lifestyle imaginable in order to find it again. It can be seen in the face of a baby and in the eye of a storm. It is dangerous, because it can seduce us—sometimes beyond our own understanding, but it is also fulfilling and healing and sweet. Sometimes beauty is not seen at all; it jumps out at us from a page of text or it sweeps through us during a conversation with a person we esteem. But beauty always calls out more than a affirmation and demands a response; sometimes an emotion, sometimes an exclamation of praise, sometimes an interaction with the beautiful thing itself, sometimes a longing for something that we can’t even put a finger on. True beauty calls something out of us and desires a greater emotion than simple pleasure or happiness.
Sometimes a beautiful thing may be dull or shabby. Sometimes something that is very physically pleasing may not be beautiful at all. How do we tell? We can sense it. We know.
For some reason, we each have a deep seeded appreciation for beauty. I see beauty in simple things…and when these things come before my eyes or into my mind I am often caught off guard by a deep emotional connection to something much larger than myself. But sometimes when I see a very beautiful, done up, put together woman or a rich and elegant looking jewel the response is very different. I may see a pleasing image, but I don’t feel the same emotional draw and connection. My step is not lightened and my spirit is not quickened. The draw is tough to explain but it is unavoidably clear.
I love what Diotima says about seeing beauty in all different places. She says very clearly that if men spend all their time looking for a physically beautiful woman they will be very disappointed. After all, there are many beautiful people in the world, and they will soon see that she is only one of the many. She will lose her allure not because she is no longer beautiful but because she is not the only thing in the world that carries beauty with her.
So what’s the alternative?? Seek ugly people? Maybe. Maybe ugly people are more beautiful sometimes. Not because they are more pleasing to the eyes but because they bear a beauty that has nothing to do with physical appearance. We can be drawn to them without the fear of missing Beauty because we are too busy looking at a “shell.” The same goes with the beauty of logic and the beauty of community and the beauty of nature.
Diotima calls beauty, “a connection between the mortal and the spiritual.” She describes it as an overarching entity that has much more to do with a relationship between God and his people than with seeing or appreciating a beautiful article. This is a fascinating definition because it is so simple yet so easy to miss. And it tells me that beauty has nothing to do with seeing a pleasing image. It is a thing that God gave us because he wanted to tell us something about himself. He wanted to draw our spirits and show us a very small piece of his beautiful plan and purpose. He wanted to show us how much he cherishes and longs for us.
I could not agree more with Diotima’s final conclusion:
“It is only when [man] discerns beauty itself through what makes it visible that a man will be quickened with the true, and not the seeming, virtue—for it is virtue’s self that quickens him, not virtue’s semblance.”
As humans, we try so hard sometimes to find a beautiful thing that we lose perspective of the fact that beauty is its own entity. God created many beautiful people, beautiful flowers, beautiful landscapes, and beautiful animals. Humans can create beautiful art, beautiful ideas, beautiful behaviors or actions. But all of these are merely vehicles to show us a small piece of the essence of Beauty. They are meant to be enjoyed and experienced but they themselves are not the soul of beauty. I resonate with Diotima’s claim that the very soul of Beauty is the God of all, who uses its allure and pleasure to call all men to Himself. She says that if we can find this essence we will never again be completely transfixed by the vehicle of the beauty but by the beloved that is ever behind the beauty.
Do I believe this? Can I see that my spirit and my soul are enlivened by the beauty around me? Yes. Undoubtably. And yet there are days when I wonder whether I trap myself by seeking beautiful things above beauty itself. Believing that there is someone greater behind the beauty is one thing, but training my soul to yearn for the maker of the beauty instead of the portrayal of it is something I’m still learning to do.
Yet I have to believe that despite my ability to completely miss the point, God places beauty in my day to day path anyway. He knows I might end up worshiping it rather than Him, but He is willing to place it there anyway because He is so ready to show me Himself.
If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.
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