What About Beauty???

This morning, I am sitting at home...working on a couple of projects...cleaning the kitchen...and listening to the DreamGirls soundtrack (thanks Kandi!). I was again struck  by the power and beauty of the voices of the actors. I looked around apartment and was struck by the clean lines and irregular charm of this once warehouse space in the second largest Sears building in America. Outside of my window a few brave snowflakes flew past...obviously not having gotten the memo that thanks to global warming and our dear friend El Nino...Minnesota is now a sub-tropical state and soon to be beach front property. All of this struck me as beautiful.

Then I logged onto my business email account (thanks yahoo), and immediately I noticed that three of the six news headlines that serve as the front page to my email concern war, deaths, and bombing...one headline was concerning a "wildfire" in Malibu that claimed three mansions (ummm...was at a "wildfire" or the "wrath of God?")...another topic dealt with 9/11...yet another with the Democrats and their pending showdown with Bush over Iraq...and the final headline was focused on that great metropolis of Bangor, ME...which has apparently banned smoking in cars (I'm moving to Maine). I went from finding beauty in an old concrete warehouse wall to becoming instantly numb with news of the ridiculous violence taking place in the world.

I mentioned before that I am a news junkie. I always have been. Plus, I had a fantastic professor at Warren Wilson College, Phil Otterness, who made all of his students get subscriptions to the NY Times and pounded into us the necessity of being engaged with what's going on not only in our own backyards but in the backyards of our dear friends all around the globe. But, some days I think about a trip to the headquarters of the AP Newsire, Reuters, CNN, Fox News, the LA Times, NY Times, and Washington Post and setting off some kind of device that labotimizes anyone that writes more than two articles a week concerning death, dismemberment, war, plague, famine, natural disaster, wholesale destruction, or the newest burqa sported by Jacko. Really people...we need to know about the ugly in the world...(maybe not about MJJ and his penchant for female Muslim garments, praise be to Allah)...but we also have to be reminded...just as frequently...if not more so...of the capacity for humans to love and create beauty.

We have such an amazing capacity to bring beauty and love into this world. And we do...every day...all the time. But to watch the news...you'd think that every person on the planet is dodging bullets for at least 16 hours a day...and for the other 8 hours alternatively works in a sweatshop and/or prays to the fundamentalist version of the deity of your choice. I get it...the world is FUCKED UP. I get it...we have a responsibility not to repeat the mistakes of our past...or the past five minutes. But, dammit....I need a little hope spread on top of the tragedy...just a dollop of "I Can't Believe It's Not Genocide" would go a long way in this world of ours.

Really...I feel as if I need to go hide out in a museum for three days and lick old Greek statues to get the taste of utter despair off my tongue. But, I think I'd probably get arrested if I were caught rimming The David. Anyway...my wish for today...is that the media, at least, would acknowledge that even though the world is going to  hell in a handbasket...the handbasket we are in is a work of art, beautifully hand crafted, and something to be admired and celebrated.