Dostoevsky said “Beauty will save the world.” He didn’t mean surface beauty. He meant poetic beauty. Or as James Hillmans says: “the way in which the Gods touch our senses, reach the heart and attract us into life.” That kind of beauty will save the world.
beauty
Beauty Takes Us Back to Center
“If we get lost in dark despair, beauty takes us back to center.”-Piero Ferrucci Anyone need that right now? 🙂
Remembering the Beauty
I’ve been working hard, preparing materials for some upcoming academic classes. I love being immersed in the world of ideas, but I need to remember not to stay there–it’s not where I want to live. A wise guide once said to me–“the mind’s job is to carry out the vision of the heart.” Feeding my [ Read more … ]
An Image Big Enough to Hold You
There was a child went forth every day. And the first object he looks upon, that object he became. –Walt Whitman The late poet Stanley Kunitz believed that writers often have a “key image” that keeps working them over and over again in their writing. In fact, writers may spend an entire lifetime working one [ Read more … ]
Seeing Beyond the Surface
In yesterday’s class, I gave students the task of going out into the University community and finding: a) something visual that catches your eye (it can be as simple as a color), and b) some piece of writing or a phrase (such as an EXIT sign). A couple students came back with the phrase Seeing [ Read more … ]