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Beautiful Gratitude
I was recently asked to put together a few words to share at a company picnic – this is the result. Our work involves the preparation of Structural Engineering plans and specifications. The mention of ‘Rhett’ in the text is to a newborn in our little group. You can check us out here. Happy Labor Day!
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
There are two words that of late I have been coming back to. Or perhaps they are coming to me. They are very familiar words – and you will immediately recognize both. But unfortunately for you, you don’t know their meaning. As in fact neither do I.
The first word is beauty.
We have a common, Westernized interpretation of this word that what is pretty is beautiful. And that is true. Unsurprisingly when I Googled images for ‘pretty’ and ‘beautiful’, my screen was filled with models – mostly female – with perfect hair, makeup, and attire. But that is the lesser form of beauty. It is indeed an exploitation of the idea – taking our predilection for the beautiful and turning it into a marketing ploy. We are called to higher things.
Higher things in this case are common things. Because beauty is in common things. It’s around us always – not just sometimes. Beauty is in the ordinary. Because there are no ordinary things. We are surrounded by the extraordinary. I was thinking about this idea when I left work one day this week. As I topped the hill on the interstate, and glanced to the sunset in the west, I gazed upon a towering cloudbank with shafts of light piercing iridescent edges. It was truly magnificent. But it’s just airborne water vapor being highlighted in the visual spectrum by a ball of hydrogen fusion 93 million miles away. No – it was beautiful.
Take dandelions. If dandelions only appeared in our yards once every 25 years or so, we would have dandelion festivals. We would plan family events, vacations, and work schedules around dandelions. We wouldn’t mow the yard for weeks. We would name our children ‘dandelion’. But just because they grace us every spring, and dot an otherwise monochromatic green yard, we see them as common and a nuisance. See them for what they are – beautiful.
So is what we do beautiful? Is assembling drawings and plans, sections, and details beautiful? I believe it is. Personally, I lament the loss of the hand drawing. Because in those cases, one could get a feel for the effort and craftmanship that it takes to assemble a great set of plans. I say ‘that it takes’ – rather than ‘what it took’ – because it still takes effort and care. It’s just displayed differently. When our drawings are unrolled (or opened) 25, 50, or 100 years from now, someone (maybe Rhett’s children) will see our initials, our seals, our effort. Like it or not, they will make a measure of us based on what we produce – and the beauty of our work.
Roger Scruton puts it this way:
“beauty is an ultimate value—something that we pursue for its own sake, and for the pursuit of which no further reason need be given. Beauty should therefore be compared to truth and goodness, one member of a trio of ultimate values which justify our rational inclinations.”
At funerals, we are reminded that we are dust. But God makes beautiful things of dust.
The other word is Gratitude. I think that beauty and gratitude like to take long walks together and hold hands. Gratitude opens the door for beauty.
Because deep-seated gratitude has the power to transform our lives.
A while back, I heard a terrific story. A man who was suffering from depression had one of his physicians suggest that he write a thank you note to someone who had made a difference in his life. He chose to write to one of his elementary school teachers, who had inspired his love of literature and writing. A week or so later he received a letter in response. The teacher, long retired, said that in her 30+ years of work, this was the only time anyone had taken the time to put their appreciation in writing. She said she would cherish the note until she died.
Gratitude has that power. And being grateful – even for difficulties or difficult times – is the key to happiness and a fulfilling life. It really is as simple and as difficult as that. Because true gratitude – like true beauty – takes opening our eyes wider and seeing what’s already there.
Today we live in a land that is free of the perils of warfare and hunger. You and I have been inoculated against Polio and measles, which struck genuine terror in parents for generations. Our water is clean, the lights turn on, the shelves are stocked (or largely so), and we live in freedom and much of the world still envies.
And we can be grateful for good work. The work we do has a nobleness to it. I would encourage you to be grateful – not because you must – but out of a sincere desire to be a grateful person. That’s what I hope to be remembered as. Life is too short not to be aware of the blessings and the beauty all around. And all around here now.
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Very nice. Thanks for that.
Beautiful post, BW. Thank you so much for the reminder of the importance and value of gratitude. And beauty, too.
I understand that in Hawaiian indigenous religion there is a saying: “A monster cannot survive in an atmosphere of gratitude.”
Which would also imply that monsters breed and thrive in an atomosphere of Ungratitude.
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature”, 1836
That was both powerful and beautiful; can you assure us that Jeeves didn’t write it?
And also from Mr. Emerson, The Rhodora:
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing, Then beauty is its own excuse for Being; Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! I never thought to ask; I never knew; But in my simple ignorance suppose, The self-same power that brought me there, brought you.
“Beauty is its own excuse for being”-one of the lines I have remembered all these years from high school poetry class.
Wow! Thanks for the commentary on those two words. It made my day.
They picked the right person to give a speech – love the way you think!
I will write a letter of appreciation tonight.
There is a letter of gratitude I have been needing to write for 25 years. I just dropped it in the mail.
You sir – are The Man. Thanks for making my day!
Oh – and I failed to mention that the gentleman in the story was so touched by the effect of his note to his teacher, that he went on to write many, many more (hundreds). I don’t recall the specifics, but it was pivotal in pulling him out of his depression.