Finding Beauty and Truth in a Chaotic World
My apartment is about ten minutes from the National Mall in DC by car, twenty by metro. To say that there has been a flurry of excitement here about the upcoming inauguration and all accompanying events and balls (stop giggling) would be a severe understatement.
However, I will be covering that in a later post. For now, I will speak on how we stay focused amidst the chaos. Here are some thoughts:
1. It’s all about attitude. My most recent fortune via fortune cookie read, “Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure.” I love that. If you are looking for the adventure in life, it isn’t just “fun” or “exciting,” but it is “dashing” and “bold.” Thus, the fact that I will likely be walking the hour to and from the National Mall next week to stand for hours in 20 or 30 degree weather is a dashing and bold adventure. Not because of the crowds or the cold or the distance, but because I get to stand there and witness history and participate in it.
2. You often find what you seek. Seek good things. If you are looking for distraction, a reason the world is sad and lonely and falling apart, or if you fear you will be overwhelmed by chaos, then you likely will be. Because you are looking for that. Why not look for something better? C. S. Lewis said: “If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.“
There is a lot to say about the topic of comfort, and why we seek to always hide ourselves in our comfortable worlds instead of seeking out change. We begin this year in a place of uncertainty as a nation, economically, politically, environmentally and so on, but if we seek comfort through it, we will likely continue to find what we as a nation seem to have fallen into: overindulgence in spending, eating, and fighting. Instead, why not seek change? Truth—and all the weight and meaning that comes with that word? And for me, most of all, beauty.
I have been trained to represent beautiful things. Now I hope to continue to focus my thoughts and writing this year on all beauty and truth.
