Wish I were...

"To think we can live without beauty is part of the craziness of our time." So writes J. Ruth Gendler in her luscious book, Notes on the Need for Beauty. When I read that sentence, I immediately paraphrased it in my mind, "To think we can live without peace is part of the craziness of our time."

The author of the worldwide bestseller, The Book of Qualities, Gendler's new book is a paean to Beauty. In it, she goes deep, deep into beauty, what it is, what it isn't, how we get there, how we see, who we are in relation to Beauty.

One of Gendler's points is that we, as a race, are "exiled from Beauty." We are exiled, too, from peace. At the same time, we exile ourselves from both. There is only one option here, and that is to learn to embody beauty and to learn to embody peace. In fact, I might go so far as to say that when we learn to embody beauty, embodying peace will be much easier.

Why is that? Let us turn to one of the great theologians of our time-Miss Piggy. She says, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye." You go, girl.

We are not all meant to resemble Catherine Deneuve or George Clooney. We are meant to be as beautiful as we can recognize ourselves to be. We are the beholders. One of Gendler's truths is "Beauty doesn't live in us so much as between us and through us," and so does peace.

There is a simple way to begin to notice Beauty in ourselves and in the world. Each person can do this practice: Notice what you love. It is love that makes things, people, places, sounds, sentences beautiful. Become a beholder of beauty, dear one.

And if you can't, or won't, take a page out of another great theologian's book, Bishop Desmond Tutu. He was quoted in this month's Vanity Fair Africa issue, "I wish I were a pacifist. I am not a pacifist, I'm a peace-lover." Now paraphrase the Bishop, "I wish I were a beauty. I am not a beauty, I'm a beauty-lover."

Ruth Gendler is right. We need beauty in this world. We also need peace. Perhaps as we behold more and more beauty, peace will sneak into our hearts with it.