Comments on: Would you recognize true beauty if you walked past it on the way to work?

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:43:47 +0000

How often do we allow the time. It does seem that we are always pushing to use up every spare minute for some type of task. My wife and I are funny this way. We commute together. I like to leave 40 minutes before we need to be at work, 20 minutes works for her. If we go her way and pass by some young wildlife, we can’t stop. With me at the wheel, we can watch the young horses play in the morning. Make sure that you allow time for the unexpected joys so that when they do come your way, you get to enjoy them.
And please don’t tell my wife I wrote this, that could hurt : )

By: Think Christian » Blog Archive » The moral message of architecture; or, why your church building shouldn’t be ugly

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:14:51 +0000

[...] (Related items posted previously on TC: ten beautiful church buildings, is your church building a ministry?, recognizing true beauty when you see it.) [...]

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:05:05 +0000

I bet people would be far more apt to take a nice loooooong look of there was a girl in a bikini showing off her dancing talents…how sad.

By: The Aesthetic Elevator

The Aesthetic Elevator — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:08:45 +0000

@ Michelle:

The article/discussion speaks to people’s priorities in our culture though. The “right time” is a completely subjective term and easy way to rationalize our inattentive American behavior. We don’t take the time to stop and smell the roses anymore; for most of us the “right time” is never! I think this is part of the point of the experiment.

By: Rob Burns

Rob Burns — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:43:20 +0000

For me, the most moving parts of the article were the interviews with Mortenson and Picarello, who knew that something extraordinarily beautiful was in their midst even though they couldn’t stop for too long. When I read their reactions, I am inspired to be a vessel for God’s beauty on a continual basis, and I am reminded that God is like the reader of the article- the omniscient observer who is our eternal audience, and “working as unto the Lord” pleases Him, even if nobody else ever appreciates or even understands who we are serving. Worship, service, compassion, exhortation—all must be done full-bore! Bell didn’t want to play half-heartedly… neither should we allow ourselves to pray or fast or give or love or worship half-heartedly, although many times those things are done in secret as well (and the first three SHOULD be done in secret – Matt.6).

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:21:12 +0000

If people don’t stop when seeing/hearing an artist on the street it doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate the art form, it’s just that it is not the right time for them to stop. I don’t care how great of a performance takes place – if I have an appointment I’m not going to be late for it. On the other hand, if I am just strolling at leasure, I would be very happy to stop and listen to a street performer, even if they are not considered by critics as great.
My favorite street musician is the ‘Saw Lady’ whom I see frequantly at Times Square. The fact that I don’t always stop to listen to her doesn’t mean that I don’t think she is a great musician. She is wonderful. But if I have an appointment, I can’t stop and be fired for being late, just because a great performer was performing on my way!

By: MrPages

MrPages — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:55:08 +0000

Art is about context as much as anything.

Would a Pollock be anything but scribbles on a subway wall?

Andy Warhol’s Brillo boxes are stacked all over grocery store shelves and they aren’t art there.

Picasso’s Don Quixote would be a napkin doodle in a pile of construction paper.

Yes, he’s brilliant, but we are trained to respect context (positively or negatively).

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:49:21 +0000

Alan—agreed about the Post article. It’s really well written and moving. Great journalism.

By: Alan Smith

Alan Smith — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:28:26 +0000

This article was incredibly well written by the washington post and it caused to swell up in me a chord of sadness as I realized that I too might have walked by. The sadness was doubled at the children that desired to stop but the parents moved them on. How often do I stop my children from admiring the beauty of God? I am reminded of the book _Windows_of_the_Soul_ by Ken Gire.

Thinking about it, this reminds me of a lesson I did for the children in a Sunday School class. I first showed them a beautiful photograph I had taken of a beautiful sunflower against a perfect blue sky. I asked them to describe where they thought it was taken. Imagine their surprise when I showed them the next photograph. It was a wide angle shot showing that the flower was in the corner of a parking lot in the midst of mess close by the church. There is beauty all around, we must be diligent to look for it. How sad that the teacher forgets the lesson…..

By: Intentional Observation: Stop and smell the beauty « The Aesthetic Elevator

Intentional Observation: Stop and smell the beauty « The Aesthetic Elevator — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:14:05 +0000

[...] 11 July 2007 Posted by TAE in Intentional observation, Modern culture, Aesthetics, Beauty. trackback A wonderful experiment in D.C. attempting to expose our impatience and lack of appreciation forthings beautiful was blogged about at Think Christian: [...]