Today I listened to a wonderful podcast with Sarah Clarkson about the importance of beauty. A quote that will stick with me:

beauty is a tangible encounter with God’s goodness 

She is very interested in our embodied lives, something that I am coming to see is very important.

There was a lot of other good content, including her addressing the critique “Beauty is only relevant to privileged / rich people”.  A rough paraphrase of her response is: Nonsense. Beauty is very relevant to war torn areas. Beauty is not the perfect middle class home, it’s providing shelter to people. It’s binding up wounded. It’s bringing healing. As she was talking I was thinking about the Japanese are of Kintsugi where broken pottery is repaired, often with gold or silver. The “scars” are a reminder of history, worthy of preserving rather than throwing out.

I can recommend her book A Beautiful Truth. More than any other book, it has helped me to understand the sacramental stream / tradition.

During the podcast I was reminded of core principles at Hashicorp:

Beauty Works Better

I am glad that I retired, but regret that I was too worn out to spend more time at Hashicorp. The company’s Tao and Principles were aligned with my personal values.

Other Quotes from This Week

Two quotes I came across this week which aren’t about beauty, but can’t help but share them because I think they are so good:

The deepest motive for mission is simply the desire to be with Jesus where he is, on the frontier between the reign of God (good / wholeness) and the usurped dominion of the devil (evil / distruction)

Lesslie Newbigin, A Word in Season, 129.

Work is love made visible

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet