This is Life Is So Beautiful, a weekly email that is handcrafted, non-AI-generated, personally written and lovingly curated by Hugh Hollowell. It’s devoted to the idea that our survival in this brutal world is rooted in finding the beauty that is everywhere, but sometimes hard to find. If you missed last week's edition about building a life that centers memories you can catch up right here. |
George Washington’s Chair 📷National Park Service
Hey y’all!
As the general euphoria in my circles has been expressed since the elections on Tuesday, I have thought a lot about a story I remember from US History.
In 1787, after years of struggle in the American Revolution, and then more than a decade under the first attempt at a federal government under the failed Articles of Confederation, finally there was a new Constitution for the United States.
As the last signatures were being applied in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin made an observation, which I am copying here from James Madison’s notes:
Whilst the last members were signing Doctr. FRANKLIN looking towards the Presidents Chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. I have said he, often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicisitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun.
Is it a rising sun, or a setting one? In a picture (or a chair carving), it’s hard to tell, because it’s frozen in time. The only thing that separates an image of a rising sun or a setting one is the meaning we import to it. Similar to how we experience an emotion and decide if it is nervousness or excitement. We bring the meaning to the thing.
But in real life – when you are on a beach and are gazing at the sun on the horizon, you are not confused about whether it is a rising or setting sun, because you get to see what happens next.
A lot of us – myself included -- have decided that this is a rising sun, and we are overjoyed and grateful. But what really tells the story, of course, is what happens next.
And that is up to us.
Five Beautiful Things
In 1972, filmmaker William Greaves threw a party in Harlem. The attendees? Veterans of the Harlem Renaissance. Duke Ellington. John Henrike Clarke. Aaron Douglas. Ida Mae Cullen. The list goes on and on. He filmed it, then the film sat in a vault for 50 years. His son put it together and released it as Once Upon a Time in Harlem – The trailer is magnificent.
Three humpback whales breeching and playing. This is phenomenal. (via Kottke)
There are sounds we just don’t hear anymore. When was the last time you heard a modem scream? Or a busy signal on a phone? The sound of keys typing on a typewriter? The website Conserve The Sound is a “Museum for endangered sounds.”
Loraine Loots is a miniature artist. I mean, she seems normal sized, but she makes miniatures – some as small as a piece of rice, or a matchhead. These are lovely, and all things miniature fascinate me. (via Sam, a frequent reader)
As you drive into Raleigh NC from the south, you see the 9,000 square foot Shimmer Wall – a 210 feet long piece of public art made of aluminum flaps that move in the breeze and “shimmer”. They installed it in 2009 and it’s a bit breathtaking to see it in person. It was one of my favorite pieces of public art in a city filled with public art.
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In Case You Missed It…
The most clicked link last issue was Robert Hayden’s poetic reflection on Monet’s “Waterlilies”.
Over on my blog, the day after the election I wrote about why I won’t ever give up on Mississippi. In light of the ongoing senate race count happening here, this traveled on social media a bit.
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Last Saturday I shared a short piece with my members about the ways the last week in October was a time of strong emotions for me, and my anxiety as we got ready for the election.
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Thank You!
Thanks for riding along. I hope your weekend is amazing.
Till next time,
HH
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