Article July 19, 1993 Issue

Where does beauty come from?

The Christian Science Monitor

We were driving through some barren cattle country. It was a hot summer day, and the land seemed parched and tired. The scenery could hardly have been more dreary.

But as we drove along, my brother-in-law commented on the patience and concentration of a hawk flying overhead, the symmetry of an oak tree standing alone on a hill, the tall brown and yellow grass dancing with the breeze. Where I had seen ugliness, he saw beauty.

The message of this little experience came through irresistibly. It made me want to express keener observation instead of looking only on the surface of things. It made me want to seek out opportunities for appreciating the beauty at hand instead of complaining about the apparent starkness. And, most important, I wanted to understand more clearly the source of beauty.

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