{"id":2522,"date":"2022-05-12T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onenatureinstitute.org\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2022-05-12T00:26:34","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T00:26:34","slug":"in-praise-of-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onenatureinstitute.org\/stories\/in-praise-of-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"In Praise of Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Blog Author: John de Graaf\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m honored to be writing a blog for OneNature and to serve on its Advisory Council.\u00a0 This is truly a breakthrough organization in its understanding of the interconnectedness of all things, its understanding of the right to life of every species with whom we share this beautiful earth, and the fact that our own well-being is tied completely to nature’s gifts and awesome beauty.\u00a0 We don’t need to despoil the earth to be happy and OneNature recognizes how liberating that understanding can be.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems almost callous to talk about well-being while so many are suffering, and yet we must because it is our current neglect of the true sources of happiness that, in part, has led us to our current crises.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most important of those sources is beauty\u2014both natural and human-designed.\u00a0 It\u2019s something whose value we often recognize <\/span>implicitly<\/span><\/i>, yet it is not included in any of the well-being or happiness surveys I\u2019m familiar with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope Francis argued in <\/span>Laudato Si<\/span><\/i> that if we did not appreciate the beauty of the world and approach it with a sense of reverence and wonder, we would allow the utilitarian destruction of the environment in the pursuit of economic wealth.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a boy growing up in San Francisco, California, I spent part of each summer in the wilderness with my friends and it taught me lessons about the environment, joy, and the need for beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n

We walked in beauty, as the Navajo say.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n