SENTINAL WATCH May 19, 2003 Issue

Beauty is a thing of vision

By Chris Rankin

The other day I was driving home from work, doing my daily navigation of moon craters and over-eager commuters on Massachusetts Avenue. On this particular day, as I crossed under the landmark walkway over the road at Boston Hospital, I was hit with a sudden feeling of sadness.

Looking around, I saw depression and poverty. Homeless men sat mumbling on the curbside. Others struggled with their big coats because of the sudden warm weather. Two men stumbled through the stalled traffic trying to get a few coins from drivers.

Sitting there in traffic, feeling gloomy about what I was seeing, I remembered an important lesson I had learned in film school several years ago. There is beauty in everything, and it is up to me to see it. But as I looked around, I wondered where the beauty was in this dismal scene. Beauty? Here?