Beauty in Social Change

Spiritual writers suggest that Beauty does more than simply transform the soul and expand our consciousness, those results lead us somewhere… to the task of making the world a more beautiful place. Some speak of it as the admonition of Beauty. Beauty admonishes us, urgently advises us to create, to protect, to preserve.

Christina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, biologists and National Geographic wildlife photographers, have said, “Beauty has less to do with the material things around us, and more to do with how we spend our time on earth. We create true beauty only when we channel our energy to achieve a higher purpose, build strong communities and model our behavior so that others can find inspiration to do better by each other and our planet.”

Beauty is in the midst of every social change, in every attempt to make the world a better place. Beauty, Sacred Presence, is in the midst of all ugliness, all darkness, all violence, working from within to bring light and hope to every situation, to guide us by touching us with the emotional and spiritual power of Beauty. The indwelling presence of the Divine pulls us all toward justice, when we surrender to this Love within us and work to do good in the world, beauty is manifest in our lives and in the world.

Life is challenging. All we need to do is look around and we see a world where inequities abound, where people are treated as less than, where care for our environment is brushed off, where some have way too much and some have way too little (through no fault of their own), where war is tearing apart countries and families and land, and so forth. What do we do with beauty in the midst of tragedy and violence and destruction and cruelty? Karen Johnston leads the way for us when she says:

Where beauty is hidden, reveal it.
Where beauty is ruined, restore it.
Where beauty is absent, create it.
This will be our gift to our aching world.

In the struggle for social change, Beauty looks like courage, strength, compassion, sacrifice, generosity, risk, and creativity. We can see it manifest when we march and protest peacefully, when doing advocacy work, speaking truth to power, or serving others. I find myself wondering what would happen if we made Beauty our primary purpose. As we go through our days what if we asked ourselves: What would Beauty say or do in this situation? What if our governments asked the same questions? I think the result would be profound. 

Here are some examples what it looks like when being beauty is our primary purpose.

When a businessman from Seattle adopts a Native American grandmother on the Pine Ridge Reservation, is moved to build her a home to protect her from the harsh winters and ends up quitting his job to start a non-profit that builds homes and works to improve the lives of Native Americans on the reservations… that is beautiful.

When a church in the Bible Belt of Tennessee overcomes their own fears and prejudices and puts up a sign welcoming the Memphis Islamic Cultural Center that is moving in across the street from them, befriends those who were afraid they might be attacked, and even invites them to celebrate Ramadan in their facility while the Islamic Center is being built… that is beautiful.

When conservative Southern California Anglo churches get deeply connected to Hispanic churches in their own communities, and the two groups come to know each other’s faith and families and then together seek to fix a broken immigration system… that is beautiful.

When an artists’ collective turns a cement and cinder block poor neighborhood in Las Palmitas, Mexico, into a giant neighborhood mural, painting 209 houses into a bright bold design, a sketchy area where people once avoided being outside after dark began to change. People started talking to each other and hanging out outdoors. The amazing result was more community spirit and people working to change the security of their own neighborhoods… that is beautiful.

When we staff a booth at Juneteenth Day, or show up to support LGBTQ persons at a PRIDE rally… that is beautiful.

When we work together to provide food for the homeless and needy here in Racine, and at the last minute are able to pull together even more meals than expected… that is beautiful.

I know it can be overwhelming, the number of places that need beauty in this world, but the question is not, How can we do it all? The question is How can we bring beauty to one small corner of a broken world? How can we BE Beauty here? How can we illuminate Beauty here? How can we reveal, restore and create Beauty? These things we can do, in both little and big ways with courage, risk, determination, compassion, advocacy, creativity, strength, hope… we can BE Beauty in the world.

Jim Wallis tells the story of his wife driving their 9 year-old song, Jack, to school one day. A song called “Waiting on the World to Change” by John Mayer was on the radio. The song describes many of the things that are wrong with the world, then goes to the refrain “We’re waiting on the world to change.” Jack was listening and quickly responded, “Mom, that’s wrong! We can’t just wait for the world to change. We have to change it ourselves!” 

He's right. Be beauty – in our actions, our attitude, our words – and we'll not only change the world, we'll experience our own transformation.

I'll leave you with this final thought from Rumi: “Let the beauty we love be what we do.”

Love & Light!

Kaye