Beauty speaks only to those who know the language, no matter what the medium
May 6th, 2007
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…said Bethesda, MD on the online chat with Gene Weingarten who wrote Pearls Before Breakfast
While Weingarten’s intention was to highlight the problem of framing art or beauty, I think many were upset because they recognise the abysmal business of life.
I think there is a reason behind the need to frame art or beauty. For music, it means to put one in the mood for it. Music when well-matched with one’s mood brings forth emotion – surpressed purposefully or unknowingly – and allows it to rise to the surface and overflow. Once freed of it, one returns to being calm and a sense of peace settles. There are many examples: angsty teenagers listening to rock because it matches their feeling of weltschmarz; the poor black labourers playing blues to chase away the blues. If one’s mind is preoccupied with a worry that one would not be able ‘beat the clock’, beauty would find no room. The ability to recognise and appreciate beauty, is afterall, in the mind. So I think while it is upsetting that moments of beauty passed us by unnoticed, it is understandable.
A friend of many years has left the nest to join her fiance in London. She seemed very happy and excited. I wanted to say, don’t go but squeezed her hand and said, take care. I came home and listened to Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now.
