{"id":2285,"date":"2012-02-24T06:05:11","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T14:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=2285"},"modified":"2012-02-24T06:05:11","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T14:05:11","slug":"slow-beauty-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/02\/24\/slow-beauty-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow, Beauty Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n

It was Anne’s idea to, this year, spend our “anniversary trip” in one place. Wherever that would be, we would get to know it better, see it deeper, and just have time to be.<\/p>\n

Though it could have been anywhere, we came to coastal Oregon. We’ve not been disappointed. Even with the famous rain, there’s also the famous green, the famous forests, the wild seas and wondrous coves, the driftwood beaches, the great seafood and, of course, many interesting people. We came for three weeks, and the whole time–in shades of grey or in full color–has been beautiful.<\/p>\n

Beauty, it’s something we need.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One friend of mine told me how she experienced that. She’d gone to Vietnam with her husband for a military reunion many years after the war. The ravages were still apparent and after some days she was feeling absolutely depressed by it. It was like a sickness of ugliness. Too bad; Vietnam in its natural state is a place of beauty. Finally, she came across a beautiful scene and her spirit leapt. She revived and was at peace again.<\/p>\n

I once met another person who had undertaken a study of beauty. She’d earned an online PhD in aesthetics. Intrigued, I went online to find the school and look at the program. It was there, and the curriculum was both deep and wide–involving a great deal of reading. Far too academic for me. Good for some minds, but I’m afraid I’d bog down and lose the original idea. Instead of my eyes being opened, they’d be glazed over.<\/p>\n

I like better the example of a Catholic nun I encountered some years ago who called herself “a wonderologist.” Her self-proclaimed purpose in life was to see the wonder of every moment and point it out to whoever was standing near and cared to appreciate it with her.<\/p>\n

I wonder if there’s a degree offered in wonder<\/em> somewhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meantime, I can always devise my own: An independent study in wonder, with a double emphasis in\u00a0aesthetics\u00a0and beauty.<\/p>\n

I could start today as we leave lovely Oregon, with a lunch stop in artistic Ashland, then through mountains and by\u00a0snow-covered Shasta in northern California, stopping to see our kids in “Tall Tree” (Palo Alto), onto the Carmel gallery I’m in, then down through the majestic coasts of Big Sur to mellow San Luis Obispo for a quick \u00a0stay with sister Sue, and finally home, the best place of all.<\/p>\n

All along the way there should be signs, “Slow, Beauty Ahead.”<\/p>\n

The trouble is, we’d never get there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sometimes God’s speed
\nIs not what we need.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Next:\u00a0Yet more about beauty<\/em>. Coming Monday.<\/p>\n

Feel free to share with a friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know you can get a graduate degree is aesthetics? It’s a lot of work. Or you can slow down and take in the beauty all around. That’s an effort too, but it rewards to a high degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2285"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2340,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions\/2340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}