Tuesday, August 08, 2006

In Defense of Beauty, Play, and a Liberal Education

It is a bit sad such things need defense. Perhaps it is just my own inclination, but I often have this absurd urge that everything I do have some purpose behind it. But by behaving so I deprive myself of the ability to play, create, and imagine. Too often I feel that if something does not have immediate utilitarian and practical use, then it must be useless. Rationally I know this not to be so, but still I often fall prey to this mentality and lose out. I have to kick myself every once in a while and remind myself that it is okay to admire beauty and not sheer vanity and that it is okay to play and not a misuse of resources. Children don't have this problem, but somehow our ability to play is beaten out of us as we become adults in society. Perhaps that is one of the meanings behind "Unless you turn and become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)

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