Friday, August 25, 2006
Of Blogging and Beauty
As I sit at my desk, I can look across to my wife's computer and her screensaver currently runs through the pictures of our visit to the incredibly beautiful Monument Valley a few weeks ago. The photos take my breathe away every time.At the time of the visit, I lamented it's remoteness and lack of development, and subsequently how few people were willing to put in the time, energy and effort required to see it.
Yes, it can be seen in every John Ford/John Wayne western made (as well as a bunch of other movies), but it's not the same. As I look at the pictures, it occurs to me that whether poeple visit or not, it is an awesomely beautiful place. Beauty is not an attribute assigned by those who perceive it - it is inherent to the thing itself.My wife loves it when I tell her how beautiful she is, which is not nearly often enough. But regardless of whether I tell her or not, the fact of her beauty does not change - it is there - observed or unobserved - commented upon or not.
Which set me to thoughts of blogging. I think we write to draw comment or notice or audience, when we should write simply to create beauty. Good ideas and good writing are good ideas and good writing regardless of whether they draw comment or visit count or not. In fact, in a world as messed up as this one is, it is likely that the better the idea, the better the writing, the less likely it is to draw comment and audience.God made Monument Valley to be beautiful, regardless of whether we see it and appreciate its beauty or not. God made us in His image, part of which means we are supposed to make things too - beautiful things - as He made them. The beauty is a function of our granting it upon the creation, regardless of who sees it and who does not.
To be a bit less poetic for a moment (not that I am ever really poetic), beauty is not a function of writing like Faulkner or painting like Matisse. Those of us in the sciences have learned to appreciate the beauty of good reasoning - have you ever heard a mathematician talk of an "elegant" proof? They do, and they are right to do so. There is beauty in the perfectly designed experiment. There is your own beauty in simply revealing a bit of God's creation in you.
With all this in mind I think as Christian bloggers we should endeavor to create beauty - the kind of beauty evident in the creation of the blog, regardless of readership. I see so much ugliness and most of it comes from chasing readers instead of beauty.
Related Tags: creation, blogging, beauty
