How We Get Beauty Wrong
Why pursuing beauty is fundamentally basic to our daily lives & a challenge to go deeper.
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.”
-Sir Roger Scruton
In the twentieth century, the art establishment and the entertainment world went out of their way to marginalize the concept of beauty. We don’t have the space here to get into the “Why?” behind that, but we need to observe that when a society removes the pursuit of the “beautiful” it is doing something more than hurting the world of aesthetics.
In the anciet world, as Roger Scruton’s quote above points to, beauty was an ultimate value and was pursued for it’s own sake. That means people pursued the Beautiful like they would pursue Goodness and Truth. The Beautiful was foundational to human existence and flourishing.
You and I face a daily battle in pursuing all these ultimate values: Beauty, Goodness, and Truth. Our society, though the most sophisticated in the world, is also the most decadent and greedy society on the planet. Flourishing today is related to financial success, social status, and power.
This needs to change. It’s why I moved my family to Oxford, England, nearly ten years ago to study beauty for two years, and it’s why I write and paint and promote outdoor adventure. We need to be beauty chasers, and we need to mentor younger generations in this pursuit.
Below, I’ve listed six reasons people use to relegate beauty to the margins. It’s not exhaustive by any means. But it gives us a glimpse at why our society has become so averse to pursuing beauty daily.
After the list, I conclude with a short explanation about this Substack newsletter and an invitation for you to join me in learning more about the value of the Beautiful (and the Good and Truth) and how it relates to our daily lives.
Ok, number one.
It's not for me.
We think beauty only matters for creatives, artists, and “imaginatives,” whatever that means. But this is a lie. Every person on earth benefits from beauty.
Truth: From symmetry of architecture, to how our brains feed on the beautiful (neuroscience and neuroaesthetics), to natural wonder, to the nuance of a beautiful relationship, we daily experience beauty or suffer from it’s absence—and that’s why The Beautiful Disruption—this newsetter—exists.
Beauty comes from within.
We think true beauty comes from within. But this goes against our everyday experience. Beauty covers every aspect of life, from the physical to the spiritual.
Truth: The expansiveness of beauty in our daily experience tells us that it is more nuanced and complex than we make it. Beauty weaves through our daily experience in the physical world and calls to us in the metaphysical places.
Human experience recognizes that something other is out there, calling to us through the beauty we experience. Even leading atheist thinkers leave room for the unanswerable questions brought on by beauty and wonder.
It doesn't matter.
In the real world, beauty is a luxury we cannot afford. It makes no impact on my job or my faith.
Truth: Beauty can and does bring deep meaning to our vocations. Manchester Bidwell in Pittsburg is an example of how developing a philosophy of beauty can transform people’s lives and a whole physical society.
Inspiring our citizens with grandeur, wonder, and beauty affects their daily attitudes and what they think they can accomplish in their lives.
Real men don't care about beauty.
To be a masculine man, you must be gruff and spartan.
Truth: King David of the Old Testament disagrees. A warrior, a king, and a poet, King David understood God to be a God of wonder, splendor, and majesty. Beauty touches concepts like honour, loyalty, and bravery. Beauty molds us with gentleness, discipline, humility, and courage.
Men, we need more poet-warriors in this world. You in?
It's not practical.
That’s right. It’s not. But this is Plastic People's thinking and leads to despair. Who are the Plastic People? I write about the Plastic People in my book, The Beauty Chasers. Plastic People are the efficiency people—who throw beauty to the side of the road in favor of all things utilitiatrian.
Truth: Are things like vocational calling, spiritual intimacy, and joy practical? Not as the world sees it. But that’s the point. The world is killing itself as it frames itself into an efficiency and production coffin. But that’s not how human beings are meant to live.
It doesn't get me ahead in life.
It doesn’t. But getting ahead often includes shallow practices that don’t feed our souls.
Truth: God made us to run on soulish things. Beauty nourishes us to be people of gentle and humble hearts. People manipulating others to get ahead disregard the treasure of beauty and wisdom.
Their bottom-line thinking gets them only so far. But those who seek beauty and goodness, and seek to serve others, find a treasure more precious than gold.
Let's chase beauty together!
We all desire meaning and purpose in our lives. And Beauty contributes to the deepening of meaning and purpose.
You and I experience it every day, in every way. Our relationships, the created order, our homes, times of quiet, times of laughter and joy, and I’m sure you and I could continue this list.
If you’re a subscriber here, you are already part of this movement to live like beauty matters. Free or paid, you are precious here and valued. So, thank you for being a part of The Beautiful Disruption.
But I want to go deeper into all of this. So, starting this month, in March, we’re doing just that—discovering more about how beauty shapes us inside and out, inspires our vocational calling, draws us closer to God, and infuses our daily lives with joy. And I’d love for you to join me.
Everyone who upgrades to become a paid subscriber will be receiving bonus weekly posts aimed at going deeper with me on topics like beauty, imagination and the arts, practical theology, vocational calling, finding your creative path, and all the things I usually post about here and on my Instagram channel.
Join me for monthly teaching sessions, private subscriber-only chats, and more!
And, to kick things off, for a limited time, everyone who upgrades to paid subscriber status will get my popular e-magazine resource The Summer Slowdown for free. I released this short course last spring as an encouragement and inspiration to be more intentional with our summer months. It contains:
90 minutes of video teaching on the subjects: Slow, See, and Participate.
A 100-page digital magazine I designed and wrote as a visual inspiration to go deeper with my teaching.
A 31-Day Summer Slowdown Challenge in the magazine will give you ideas for slowing down and seeing the world with new eyes this summer.
I’m offering this resource for free for all paid subscribers here. And don’t worry all of you who are already in “Tim World” (ha!) as paid subscribers, I’ll be sending you all an email with your free access to The Summer Slowdown as well.
So, if you want to go deeper into these subjects, let’s do it. And, let me tell you, it will be a broad exploration. From how to improve your curiosity skills, to vocational insights, to exploring how colors can enhance our lives, we’ll get into it all.
If you want to stay on the free list, that’s great. You’ll still get weekly posts. But if you want to enhance your experience here, consider upgrading.
Beauty has been foundational to human existence and flourishing since the beginning of time. And I want to help bring this focus back to our culture. Thanks for being part of the movement.
Community Conversation
How do you think our culture gets beauty wrong?
Have you gotten beauty wrong before? If so, feel free to share what changed your thinking and turned you into someone who chases beauty.
Why do you think it matters that we get beauty right and keep the right perspective on beauty and its value in our lives and society?
This reminds be of CS Lewis’s quote “ we do not want merely to see beauty, though God knows, even that is bounty enough we want some thing else which can hardly be put into words to be united with the beauty we see to pass into it to receive it into ourselves to bathe it to become part of it”
I’ve been thinking of this concept recently as it relates to the beauty of kindness. I had a conversation with a (well meaning) coworker who was warning me about being too generous in being kind to other coworkers, particularly in the ways I’d call them “Friend” or having too much of an open door policy. I’ve been prayerfully considering what it means to practice the beauty of abundant kindness towards others and rejecting the notion of becoming calloused or brusque in speech with the people that we interact with everyday. Yes, workplaces are filled with sinful people (I’m one of the biggest ones there!) and people will gossip and perhaps say unkind things behind others backs. But what if we practiced beautiful kindness instead with our words, consequences be damned? 🤍