{"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 We need to re-wild our cities and even our rural communities and encourage our digitally enslaved children, especially, to experience trees and flowers and animals and open space on a <\/span>regular<\/span><\/i> basis.\u00a0 To experience the wonder that beauty brings.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n For ideas on how to do this, check out the wonderful European website: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>www.naturvation.eu<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Studies by the Gallup<\/a> polling organization have found that access to beauty, <\/span>especially nature and open space<\/span><\/i>, is one of the three most important predictors both of people\u2019s love for the communities they live in, <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> the likelihood that they are satisfied with their lives.\u00a0 In place after place, they found that natural and human-designed beauty was even more valued than good schools, high-paying jobs or public safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I was struck by the wager of Doug Tompkins, who founded the North Face and Esprit clothing companies.\u00a0 \u201cIf anything can save the world, I\u2019d put my money on beauty,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n The great novelist Dostoevsky, in THE IDIOT, said that beauty would save the world.\u00a0 Quoting Dostoevsky, the Russian poet Yevtushenko added a caveat.\u00a0 \u201cAh, but who will save <\/span>beauty<\/span><\/i>?\u201d he asked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Harvard philosopher Elaine Scarry makes a powerful case that beauty is not a distraction from justice.\u00a0 Instead, it makes us kinder, more generous, and more tolerant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Beauty is not solely in the eye of the beholder.\u00a0 Millennia of evolution have made us partial to harmonious and well-tended landscapes and pristine natural settings.\u00a0 Instinctively, we understand them as life-affirming and they bring joy to our hearts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Scottish-born naturalist John Muir understood that a rising material standard of living wasn\u2019t enough.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEveryone needs <\/span>beauty <\/span><\/i>as well as bread,\u201d he proclaimed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And perhaps you know what ecologist Aldo Leopold said: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and <\/span>beauty <\/span><\/i>of the biotic community.\u00a0 It is wrong when it tends otherwise.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Stewart Udall, about whom I\u2019m making a new film, was the first American political figure to warn about global warming\u2014in the mid-1960s.\u00a0 He advocated what he called \u201cthe economics of beauty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAn increasing Gross National Product,\u201d he wrote in 1968, \u201chas become the Holy Grail, and most of those economists who are its keepers have no concern for the economics of beauty.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s time that we find ways to add beautiful natural and built surroundings to our well-being measures.\u00a0 It\u2019s time we turn back from the cliff that our current passion for economic growth leads us inexorably towards, and, instead, appreciate the beauty of the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n On a cold January day in 1912, thousands of workers walked out of the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts, striking for a small increase in wages and a decrease in their working hours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is said that they carried a banner as they marched through Lawrence.\u00a0 On it were the words: WE WANT BREAD AND ROSES TOO!\u00a0 The bread was the symbol of money; indeed, the pay raise they demanded would have meant four more loaves of bread on their tables each week.\u00a0 But as poor as they were, these women knew that they could not live on bread alone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The roses were the symbol of the non-material things in life\u2014art, nature, beauty, love–that are worth so much.\u00a0 We need to value these things just as those poor women did.\u00a0 For decades we knew we needed roses.\u00a0 But as the consumer society came to dominate our lives, the roses were left to wilt.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s time to water them again.<\/span><\/p>\n John de Graaf is a writer and filmmaker and member of the OneNature Advisory Council<\/a>.\u00a0 His newest film is STEWART UDALL AND THE POLITICS OF BEAUTY<\/a>: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>www.stewartudallfilm.org<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Guest Blog Author: John de Graaf\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\n