I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
Beauty Becomes You
Aesthetic:
a : of, relating to, or dealing with aesthetics or the beautiful <aesthetic theories> b : artistic <a work of aesthetic value> c : pleasing in appearance : attractive <easy-to-use keyboards, clear graphics, and other ergonomic and aesthetic features — Mark Mehler>
: appreciative of, responsive to, or zealous about the beautiful; also : responsive to or appreciative of what is pleasurable to the senses
Just in case you wondered whether mothers have a role in the aesthetic education of their children, I give you these definitions. Maybe it seems obvious to you, but to many moms at home it’s news that they have a key role in the development of this essential aspect of their child’s being. Feeling frumpy, house not as clean as it should be, no adult conversations all day, no time for extras like art and music…does this sound like any young mom you know? It sounds like lots of young moms to me. That’s why I enjoy encouraging them that even with all those realities, they still make a priceless contribution to more than the mere physical care of the little ones.
To make a case against two opposing ways of un-making beauty, I invented two characters, Dishrag Dora and Pushy Polly, who grow more like Beautiful Beatrice the more they respond to Christ’s call to the narrow way, the via media. The beauty that is becoming YOU, becoming realized in and finding expression through you, is not something you must generate, but something you must accept, grow into, possess, allow to develop, learn to dwell in, cultivate. Because the Beauty is Christ, is already real, is working to be made fully manifest. Dora and Polly lose capacity for that Beauty when they fail to cultivate heart freedom, responsiveness, the affective dimension.
‘My’ moms learn to suffer well, to be affected and so to develop their children’s capacity to be affected and to make judgements with a reason informed by the heart’s sense of what is good, pleasing and perfect. There’s so much more to this one, yet it is all another way of saying that true freedom, true beauty, true education, true relationship with Christ all go together on that narrow way.
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