“Beauty feeds the soul, wakens it, and brings it to life as nothing else can. Beauty is a deep-seated reaction to some meaningful and stunning presentation of life. All your senses and your full imagination have to be alert when beauty makes its appearance. If you miss it, it is like going without food.” -Thomas Moore
“It seems to makes sense that those who are able to place themselves compassionately in another’s shoes may experience the moral emotion of elevation through the appreciation of the beauty of the moral actions and virtues of others.” -Haidt
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all.
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
-John Keats (in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”)
Beauty in art is said to possess certain qualities: animation, nature, pattern, simplicity, symmetry, transformation, selection. spontaneity, surprise, surroundings, unity… Are such qualities found in every variety of beauty?:
Natural Beauty: Known in nature and in our bodies. In what ways do you experience natural beauty?
Artistic Beauty: Known in artistic and well-done actions, interactions, expressions and things. In what ways do you experience artistic beauty?
Moral Beauty: Known in human virtues, values, interactions and actions. In what ways do you experience moral beauty?
Playful Beauty: Playful delight in solitude and with others. In what ways do you experience playful beauty?
Relational Beauty: Known in nurturing relationships with others. In what ways do you experience relational beauty?
Social Beauty: Known in well-done social actions and citizenship. In what ways do you experience social beauty?
Spiritual Beauty: Known in immaterial and transcendent experience. In what ways do you experience spiritual beauty?
Ascension (Painting) © Janet Pfunder 11/2011
Sagamore Afternoon (Oil Painting) © Robin Kappy, LCSW 11/2011
Photographic Image “Beau Flying” © Raw Q (Anonymous Photographer) 2011
