“A Flower Blossoms for its own joy.” Oscar Wilde
Art and beauty for the sake of art and beauty—unencumbered by purpose, criticism, or logic…sounds delightful! Apparently, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde had the guts to live that way.
Life was obviously different over 125 years ago, yet Mr. Wilde’s aesthetic approach was considered radical in his time as well.
He came from parents of means and professional status, so working to survive day to day may not have been his major concern.
He was highly educated—via scholarships—with the freedom to pursue his creativity. His mom and dad must not have sat their son down and insisted that he get a degree in something that could support him financially—a ‘FICA job’ as my friend told her kids. Someone else must have chopped the wood and stoked the fire in the hearth in his apartment—an apartment filled with ‘objets d’art.’ Maybe that’s where he got the idea to say: “Burn always with hard gemlike flame.” Or did he somehow sense his life on earth would later be impoverished and ultimately brief? I too, have art on the walls and objects in a curio cabinet—of value to me; no matter if anyone else finds them worthy of displaying.
Philosophically Oscar and I might be buddies. To put it another way, I believe that one must feed not just the body and mind, but also the soul to flourish. We are each one entity; best not parsed into three. What nourishes the soul is, of course, unique to each person. For some it is getting their taxes done early or buying a new car. No, the power of hearing classical music, seeing museum pieces, touring a cathedral, and admiring its architecture, reading a stunning piece of writing, or receiving a heartwarming gesture can fuel souls like ours. The best encounters and experiences evoke a visceral response. I picture a Venn diagram with lots of overlap between the circles marked ‘numbers folks’ and the ‘word aficionados’ one; or between the medical community and chiropractic approaches, or between engineers and artists and on and on.
The same question applies to both kinds of groups—do we miss living mindfully in the present, due to critics around us or worse, the critic within? Or do we journey through life striving for and seeking beauty for beauty’s sake, focusing on the experiences and people who sustain our souls while quoting old Oscar: “I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.”
Lilly Kauffman is a non-fiction writer who was privileged to work as both librarian and a teacher. Her essays, whether serious or humorous, capture the experiences that allow us to laugh and grieve. Family and faith inform her writings. She is currently working on several book projects: A Mother Grieves in Ink, Ampersand, and Lil Letters.