A Humility of Aesthetics

Humility is derived, I am told by reliable sources, from the Latin word humilitas or something classical-sounding of that nature. In this context it is, I presume, fitting to talk of 'persons' because as human beings we are essentially personal beings. So for a person to be humble means not that he or she fashions an expressive cloak of humility about them so that people may exclaim how humble that lad is. Nor does it mean to behave in such wise that people may assert that he is proud. It simply means that they are grounded in the reality - they are what they are before God, which is the only accurate perception of the reality of themselves.

Could be such a thing as a humility of aesthetics, where the aesthetic nature of a text is grounded in reality, and does not aspire to be what it is is not? Imagine a new wave of art that is just what it is, aspiring to describe only the objective realities of the world that really exist, and not subjectively perceived man-made realities. Imagine an art that is infinitely imaginative and is not too less nor too more in relation to the reality it mimics. Imagine an art that artistically and imaginatively and aesthetically portrays true reality in its sheer beauty. Imagine an art, imagine stories, novels, plays, paintings, poems, sculptures that impossibly portray God in all His sheer uncapturable Beauty. Imagine an art that is aesthetically humble and grounded in a reality so beautiful. Imagine true art. Imagine the impossible. And make it come true. Start creating. Start now.

Considerations Pertaining to a Possible Objectivity Bias

     The following are personal musings on the possibilities of an objectivity bias in human behaviour. First of all, in this present body of text - in perhaps the same way as an author of fiction sets out his contextual background and builds up his fictional world before the action of the story commences - I intend to lay out what I define to be objectivity and subjectivity, within my own text. Of course, the real definition may be far from what I define here. But fantasy writers do not bother whether their fictional world corresponds to the physics of the natural world, and by that I affirm that I intend to write this digressive and meandering body of text as a fantasy writer and not an essayist.

    I use objectivity in this text in the sense that a person possessing that attribute would have a more accurate view of reality. That is to say, their person-al view of reality would coincide with the actual reality. For in the perception of a reality by a person's mind, there are two distinct realities: the perceived reality and the actual reality. The perceived reality always attempts to tend towards the actual reality; but for an infinitely objective person, the two realities would be one and the same. Theologically, philosophically, logically, and reasonably, there can only be one such Person, and that is God. Subjectivity, however, entails a mode of perception wherein the two realities contradict, conflict, and conflate with each other - the perceived reality may tend closely to the actual reality, but logically cannot coincide. 

    Human beings, in their interactions with one another, tend to present the self as an objective entity. We tend to say things like: 

    "I've seen it all, both good and bad." Note how we say both good and bad - so as to encompass everything. Thus we self-bestow the grandiose distinction of being able to perceive reality objectively.

    "I know what I'm talking about." Little does the speaker know that knowing itself is in this context the act of a human person, and is thus by definition highly subjective in nature. Only God can know a reality in its integral state, that is, only God can know everything about a given reality. We are human and thus our faculties of knowing are only human.

      "I've seen the world" (and am thus supposedly qualified to speak objectively.)

        But that human person has only a human mind that is merely one subjective mind amond billions, unless the intellect in enlightened by God-given grace to see with more clarity - in the language of Scholastic theologians (this point is from a Catholic priest's sermon that I heard this week). We fail to realize that our minds are subjective, and that we can know only so much. It is wise to accept that we do not know it all nor have the inherent capacity for doing so. It is only here and there that we catch more objective glimpses of reality and of the truth concerning all reality. But this is only when God grants grace and not the result of human effort. But that light, that objective and true view of reality, is obtained only rarely, and perhaps only by a few - and those are but "hints and guesses" of the true reality of God and His creation, which would be too beautiful for man to bear. We simply cannot "bear very much reality" as Eliot puts it. In the following lines Eliot says how rare this light is received, and how the rest of us are too distracted to listen in to the gentle sounds of reality. For in this age of phones and ceaseless notifications, we are "distracted from distraction by distraction". 

"Men's curiosity searches past and future

And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend

The point of intersection of the timeless

With time, is an occupation for the saint—

No occupation either, but something given

And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,

Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.

For most of us, there is only the unattended

Moment, the moment in and out of time,

The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,

The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning

Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply

That it is not heard at all, but you are the music

While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses,

Hints followed by guesses; and the rest

Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.

The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.

Here the impossible union

Of spheres of existence is actual,

Here the past and future

Are conquered, and reconciled"

(From the Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot. Emphasis my own.)

    Only God's perspective is infinitely objective. But we sometimes delude ourselves into thinking that we are objective too, with regards to some areas of knowledge. Even the above poem by Eliot, with its beautiful poetry presents itself as objective - but it is only the work of a human mind among billions - unless, of course, God has granted grace to the intellect to see further, in which case, some verse and ideas here and there within the text will appeal to us and move us. So too in human knowledge do we have a bias towards objectivity that is perhaps beautiful as it is pathetic - beautiful because we organize and classify all that is around us, and pathetic because, we are only human and only God knows all. Hence that universal urge to classify and quantify and tidy up disciplines of knowledge. And that too is why we are always, ideally speaking for the most of us, tending towards order. And again, that too is why as human beings we draw upon our personal experience and perceptions to formulate a perspective and philosophy of life that we believe is objective and general to all human lives. As a Catholic, though, I believe that in the midst of these multiple subjective perspectives, the Church has for 2000 years presented an objective philosophy and approach to life that cannot fail. I believe that philosophy of life that the Church upholds in her beautiful teachings with regards to God, Jesus, the Incarnation, the Virgin Mary, and the meaning of life here and in eternity - I believe that is entirely objective as it was revealed by God and not man. The approach to life that the Catholic Church presents is one that upholds human life, and does everything only for the good of the human being , of every human And I trust it happily, like a child trusts his mother who he knows will do only what is good for him.

And so we come to some last considerations to provoke the reader (if any) to ponderous thought: When a writer writes a book, does he or her presents it as objective? When a writer pens a story, can it be assumed that he or she intends it to be aesthetically pleasing or that what happens in the story is desirable on the part of the writer (in the sense that the writer desires that the same happen in his life) ?

Finally, when the human will is enlightened it becomes capable of choosing. and by virtue of the choice becomes capable of action. which is reasonable as love is an act, not liking which is an emotion. The only justification that I can give for these last unrelated thoughts is that I wanted to pen them down somewhere, and where if not here, where I can write whatever on earth I want.

A New Year Comes Forth

As a new year dawns on planet Earth, billions of people around the world dream new dreams. How poignant it is that such glorious dreams are dreamt at the very outset of the year. The desires and wishes of so many millions! 

How many of these will realize their dreams? Is it possible to just 'bring about' your dreams by sheer force of willpower and effort? Perhaps. Perchance some may be haunted by the fact that last year's dreams were futile - and they may be desperate to fulfill their new resolutions. 

But there is an undeniably successful way to make your life the stuff of dreams this year. It is a path that may not guarantee that your dreams be realized - it is a path that lets go the violent, panicking hold on one's whims and fancies, and trusts in another dream. The gentle, loving dream that God our Father dreamt as He created you. "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope" (Jer 29:11). Our dreams may be beautiful, tender, sweet, poignant, moving. But God's dream is amazing and is the one single dream that our soul has always longed for. Do yourself a good turn and put all your trust in God this year! Every decision, every plan, let them all be submitted to the beautiful plans of God. Let everything happen in your life as God desires, and you will be happier than you can ever be. You will find happiness in all its beauty and truth. 

We have dreamed long enough. Let God have His way now. Let His Kingdom come. Let His will be done. On earth as it is in Heaven. 

Wisdom

You studied science and were told that we were animals and life was all numbers.

You studied literature and were told that existence was meaningless and reality was absurd.

You looked around at the people around you and saw that all we had was each other.

You closed your eyes, listened to the silence within, and realized that it was the silence of God. You realized that He was silent because He was listening. You realized that we were placed here for a purpose, and that we were not alone. And you wept for joy.