In Defense of Beauty

I just rediscovered this post that I had started writing but never finished last June. I'm not sure what else exactly I had been meaning to say, but rather than trying to flesh everything out, I deleted some unfinished sentences and am posting it now.



The entire maternal side of my family gathered together last weekend in celebration of my grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary. I hadn't seen most of them since February 2010, and a lot has changed since then. One of my aunts expressed how surprised she was by my current life path, considering that as a child I was such a picky eater and I was always very academic. I'll save my thoughts on how my sensitive palette relates to my current occupation; for now, I wanted to start this post by discussing the academic grounding to my gardening.

As a college student I deeply pursued questions of oppression and evil, from both a religious and historical perspective. I was fascinated by the civil rights movement, and liked to imagine that I would have been one of the northern white volunteers who went down to volunteer during Freedom Summer. But realistically, would I have been? Most likely I would have gone about my daily life like pretty much everyone else, looking down on the "backward South" but being totally complicit in the ongoing oppressions. Moving south definitely helped me realize this, and it helped me realize that I didn't want to be just another Northern liberal who votes for progressive change but isn't willing to change her lifestyle. The more I learn of history and of the world today, the more I realize just how much we are still so dependent upon the oppression of others to maintain our current system. And I don't like being a part of that.

This feeling is not unique, this desire to break free from the oppressive system and live more in tune with the natural world. I recently watched "Into the Wild" and saw it strongly in the hero. I also see it amongst many of the friends I have made in the last two years. But the problem with much of this thinking is the foundation in the negative, the escape from complicity in oppression and exploitation, the not wasting over the reclamation, etc...

The modern American society is so wasteful that when one realizes the magic and beauty of multiple uses, of composting, of mending clothes, it's eye-opening. I had that experience. But in the battle against waste there is a focus on use - how might this object be amended to continue its current use or to serve another, how might the value of this thing be reused. Ah, to realize that waste isn't waste, that shit isn't something gross to get rid of but rather a valuable resource. But the focus is still negative, on not wasting.

But somehow or another, there will always be waste.

What drove me to farming was freedom from complicity in oppression and exploitation of the earth and its people, and freedom from the wastefulness that characterizes most people's lives today. What keeps me in farming is the quality of life, one important aspect of which is beauty.

A bouquet of flowers does not necessarily have any practical use, besides perhaps to woo a cute girl, unlike a bunch of kale. And some might scowl at making a table at a dinner party look nicer by placing a fresh bouquet of flowers. Some might scowl at using flowers instead of kale to woo that mate! But not I, at least not anymore. Because what the flowers provide is beauty, simply for its own sake. And that, I think, is useful and valuable in its own way. A bouquet of flowers would probably say this more eloquently and powerfully than I can. Beauty brings joy.