Beauty ~ God Has Given Me The Desire Of My Heart

For an introduction to the 'Perspectives:' series and it's writing team, visit ~ "Perspectives: An Introduction"

MartieCoetser * bravewarrior * Docmo * marcoujor * MickeySr * Vickiw * you?

The idea of each of us having our own internal ‘happy place’ has become a familiar concept in our culture nowadays; it’s become a common punch-line in TV sitcoms when a character is confronted by some manner of unpleasantness for him or her to ‘go to their happy place’. I’ve never intentionally designed a ‘happy place’ for myself, and I’ve not really practiced the utilization of ‘going to my happy place’ when frustrated – but I do acknowledge a kind of daydreaming from time-to-time of my own personal most delightful, most desirable, most downright enchanting place or circumstance . . .

I visualize myself in a classroom with maybe 3 or 4 other students, each smarter than myself, in an ancient stone classroom on the campus of England’s Oxford or Cambridge University, our professor C.S.Lewis enters walking directly to a window overlooking the green grounds sprouting cathedral-like school buildings, points to a single rose under a glass dome atop a pedestal and asks us, ‘which is greater; truth, love, or beauty?’.

I just about always go too philosophical, I'm inclined toward ideas like ‘which is greater; truth, love, or beauty?’ . . . I like to assure myself that is why I have so few readers and comments as a ‘hubber’ here at HubPages. It’s nothing to do with the quality of my writing or even the topics I choose to write about, is what I tell myself – it’s just that I set the practical aside and always get too conceptual, too ‘wordy’, too philosophical. So, with this month’s theme of ‘Beauty’, my intention was to probe the very nature, the essential concept of beauty . . . how do we come to count a thing beautiful rather than ugly, what is beauty and what significance does it have, etc?

Another aspect of my writing here is, I tend to frequently get all theological and talk about God and the Bible, etc . . . and from the apostle Paul to the scholastic Augustine to the puritan Jonathan Edwards, many theologians have again and again advanced the Trinity to be the source of all beauty. So, now I’m fully determined to go on and on about the philosophical ideas behind and that are generated from our apprehension of ‘beauty’ in excruciating theological terms . . . is it the omnipotent yet benevolent authority of the triune God that is beautiful, the intimate, shared love within the divine relationship (Father, Son, etc) within the Trinity that is the nexus of all beauty?

However, besides the too philosophical and too theological approach I too often take, if there’s one other perpetual component in my writing that I imagine readers here must have reached their threshold for it’s the relentless swooning over the delicious-to-my-soul beauty of my never-ending bride that I assault all of you with again and again . . . and I’m afraid, yet again.

I’d like to spend time examining the philosophic underpinnings of the concept of beauty, I’d love to deeply ponder the theological engine that informs our idea of beauty – but, I can’t clear my head of my sweetheart’s beauty, I can’t focus my thoughts on theoretic beauty, when I have the great love of my life’s beauty relentlessly intoxicating me. Now, please understand; what’s so arrestingly beautiful about my Pixie is that, while she initially lured and captured me with her most remarkable physical beauty, beauty that still literally makes me feel woozy, it’s her personal, inner, character beauty that is such a dilemma to articulate and leaves me always staggered.

And, when I say “always”, I mean we’re as close to 60 as you can get and I’ve known her since she was 14. I’ve watched her grow and mature and I’ve recognized who I’ve become because of sharing my life with her . . . and I’ve delighted that our lives are one, we are one. Words fail when it comes to Pixie; it’s ludicrous to say she’s sweet because she’s so untainted in her sweetness, it’s silly to say she’s good because her goodness is so honest, it’s just plain difficult to say she’s kind because she’s so uncommonly kind that there needs to be another word for ‘kind’ when talking about her. Friends and co-workers all recognize there is just something very special about her, and her children (who know her best and for real) more than love her, they esteem, adore, admire, and champion her to all as the great prize of their lives to have her as their mom.

As I sit here and I write these words, I look around me and see her beauty . . . Pixie is a homemaker, a wife and mother above all else, and she has deliberated over ideas and preferences as to what she wants her home to be like, what she would like it to look like – and yet, well, let me show you ~

Pixie puts herself, her own interests and desires, behind everyone else all the time. I first though it was, observably, her face and figure that was her beauty – but it is her authentic and relentless love that is her beauty . . . “Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” ~ Augustine. I almost feel I should apologize to you all for, yet again, going on and on about how beautiful my wife is – but, our theme this month is ‘Beauty’ . . ? . . what were they (my fellow Perspectiveers) thinking?! If you come to me with ‘beauty’ as a topic, I’m going to be talking about my Pixie, for awhile. Because, besides the fact that she’s so pretty and so good . . .

. . . “We do not want merely to see beauty... we want something else which can hardly be put into words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses, and nymphs and elves.” ~ C.S. Lewis

And so, rather than all philosophical and theological, this month I'm all about the practical, the practical as in 'practiced', my Pixie is beauty in practice, acted-out . . . she is the finest example of the work of the Spirit of God in a human I have ever come across - and, she's just so aggressively pretty to look at.

MartieCoetser * bravewarrior * Docmo * marcoujor * MickeySr * Vickiw *

Interview with Mickey Haist Sr

other 'Perspective:' hubs by MickeySr ~

'Gratitude ~ Oy, What A Week I'm Having'

'Regret & Hope ~ Press On'

'What Don't You Know ~ I Don't Know Who I'm Going To Talk To'

This month our guest contributors are ~

tillsontitan

and

midget38

tillsontitan: Beauty ~ Beauty & the Beast: Perspective on Beauty

midget38: Beauty ~Songs that capture the unique perspectives on beauty Perspectives

bravewarrior: Beauty ~ Beauty is as Beauty Does - a Perspective

Vickiw: Beauty Just A Pile Of Junk

marcoujor: Beauty ~ Smoke and Mirrors (Perspectives)

Docmo: Beauty ~ I see you, I see me

MartieCoetser: Beauty ~ The Beauty in Ugliness Perspectives

If you are interested to be our guest contributor for July's 'Bigotry' theme, please contact MickeySr letting him know of your interest.