Beauty as Action

What is meant by “relationship”? At its most basic, it is the existence of communication between an entity and itself or between two separate entities. It can be felt and perceived by others outside the relationship, but need not be in order to exist. Our cosmos is in endless relationship—with itself, as it is self-organizing—as well as with all else. Whether we name it autopoiesis, holarchy, love, gravity, entropy, or strange attractors, we are naming a type and form of relationship. Harmony is when relationships are in synchronous flow. Discord is when relationships are flowing against one another: intention and counterintention.

True Beauty is the outcome of the existence of harmony. In fact, a classical Greek definition of beauty, preferred by Aristotle and paraphrased by Rollo May, is, “Beauty is the condition when everything fits…when one has the conviction that nothing could be added or subtracted. All the parts are in harmony with all the other parts.”

And if we truly grasp and accept that everything is in relationship at all times—all energies, all matter, time, space, fields, my optimism, skepticism—then we begin to see the importance of paying attention to beauty’s bountiful presence flowing around us. Yes, it is punctuated with its opposite—the yang in the yin, the light piercing the dark, and vice versa. Which will we choose to accentuate? To nurture? To replicate in our daily living?

What relationships will we choose?