Truth and Beauty

She wanted me to write something happy, so this one's for you mamacita!

Since the beginning of humanity, we have been on an eternal quest, a search for truth and beauty in the world. From a Western perspective it all got started with the ancient Greek poets, and has carried down from that day to this. It is ultimately, if indeed there is an ultimate purpose, our raison d'etre, the driving force that maintains our existence and keeps us moving forward. Whether you subscribe to the Western perspective of linear progression toward a desired point or the Eastern idea of circular progression towards the center of it all, the goal remains the same, to find out what is at the heart of the matter, what it is that we are all doing here.

Truth and beauty, like all things worthy of pursuit, is a subjective matter that lies in the soul of the beholder, which is perhaps best exemplified by that wise sage Oscar the Grouch, who finds beauty in his trash can, a place most others would avoid. And while there are those who arrogantly profess certainty about life, whether it be through a certain religious doctrine or political ideology, those who know better understand that indeed there may be no such thing as universal truth or an accepted standard of beauty. Or maybe there is, how can we ever really know? I think that there are many paths to the same road, and I'm just trying to make sure I'm on one of them.

I find the pursuit to be one worthy of my time and energy in a way that most things can never be. I can know all of the events of the day and have opinions about the president and the political system and the society that we live in, and all of those are fine past times, but at the end of it all what is the real value? Most of what we focus on is temporary, tastes and ideals change with the long steady wind of history, what we find politically and socially palpable today isn't what it was yesterday and will be something else tomorrow, mere fads, trends and stages that we enter in and out of. What I'm talking about is the more permanent ideas and values, the stuff that goes well beyond scratching the surface and penetrates deep inside of us.

Beauty is everywhere if you only can open your eyes, hearts, and most of all your soul and be willing to accept it, often in places where you might least expect it, or sometimes in places where you do expect it but not in the way that it materializes. I find beauty in the natural world, which is something about the desert that I will always appreciate and which ultimately trumps the absurdity of so much that goes on in my beloved adopted state of Arizona, or for that matter in my much loved country. The way the wind makes the upper branches of a palo verde tree dance, or the late afternoon light and the depth it gives to the surrounding landscape, the sound of the birds at feeding time in the early morning, or the way that three birds fly overhead in perfect formation and harmony.

I find beauty in the people that I am blessed to have in my life, the way I'll catch my son smiling at a show we are watching at a certain time, or knowing that when I look over at my wife at a particular moment during a movie what emotion she will be expressing. Listening to my daughter upstairs working on her latest song, muting the TV and just taking in every drop of her sweet sultry voice that I can. Yet beauty can also show up in the kind words of a friend, or even the friendly smile and passing greeting of a perfect stranger.

I find truth in what is real, honest, often raw but always genuine. The smile of a little kid is truth, there is no false pretense, no manipulation, just the true emotion of the moment. Truth the first time I set eyes on the love of my life, almost 20 years ago now, the penetration of her deep blue eyes and the sweetness of her smile across a crowded room is a moment in time that will always be in my soul, long after the temporal world and my time in it has come and gone. The moment that I saw both of my children enter the world, starting with the first sighting of the crown of my son's head to the final delivery a couple years later of my daughter, hearing the confirmation from the doctor that I had a girl as I saw her completely and instantly fell in the type of love that can only stem from beauty and an eternal truth in this world. There is truth in the random acts of kindness that people commit everyday, helping out a person in need, or even the simple acknowledgment of a person on the streets who looks to be down on their luck.

While it would take a much better writer than me to ever fully sum up what truth and beauty are, I hope that I, like so many of the giants whose shoulders I attempt to stand on, will be able to contribute at least a bit part to the great quest. It is a quest that never ends, because just as one can never read all the great books, or listen to all the great music, or take in all the great drama and comedy in a lifetime, one can never become satiated on truth and beauty. I'm reminded of the cybex machine that I used in high school when I was rehabbing my knee from a football injury, it was set up so that the harder I pushed the more resistance it gave, which allowed my knee to get stronger. Beauty and truth are like that in that the more you take in the more you find that you are able to contain, and the more that you search the more you find is out there to be sought, which only allows the quest to continue and expand. In this case it is the soul that becomes stronger. It is a quest that I hope to continue until the final day, the final moment, and if I can manage that then what I hope to be my final words one day will ring true, "I've lived a good life, and that's enough for me."