Readability: the dietetics of words

you read me 

like a book

cover to cover

voraciously seeking

my

deeper meaning

...inferencing my tone

and theme

... developing  my

character

... puzzling out the precepts of my plot

or 

like a newspaper

hungrily gleaning

whatever truth you can find

amid the posturing

and etiquette 

and politeness

of my rigid columns

and perfected typeface 

and marginalized existence

or

like the back of the cereal box

--trying to ascertain my

nutritional value...

asking yourself if my

sweetness

is all natural

or, rather,

(as so often the case in this world)

artificially

constructed with 

such attention

to detail

and

complexity

in an attempt to

recreate 

simplicity

--questioning

whether I 

really contain 

the ingredients

you want

and whether or not

what 

you want 

is 

what 

you 

need. 

or

like a poem

--focusing on finding

the rhythm

(of my heart,

of my days,

of my mind)

intermittent iambs?

troubled trochees?

doubtful dactyls?

sporadic spondees?

airy anapests?

--lingering over words

and wondering

how they 

made

their way

into my

composition

--keeping your dictionary

at hand

for those words

in my stanzas

with which you 

are not

familiar

(though they be

few

and far between)

or

like a prayer

trembling on your 

lips

half hope

half fear

all 

benediction

Commonplace Environment -- Inappropriate Hour

What makes something (or someone, for that matter) beautiful? Worthy of note? Worth more than a second glance?

Maybe because it's January, and I always seem a bit more contemplative and melancholy in January, or maybe it's because it's gray and rainy and cold everywhere I seem to go these days (Austin was all gray and rain until I left on Saturday, Lubbock was mostly sunshine until I got here on Sunday...).  Regardless of reason, I've found myself concentrating on the rather abstract construction of beauty.

It doesn't help matters that I am gearing up for a unit of British Romanticism, and we're reading Frankenstein, Shelley, Byron, and Keats (especially Keats, right, when he posits "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" ?) Also, for another course, I am about to teach The Tempest, and goodness knows it makes much ado about beauty.

And then, a few days ago, for the first time in a very long time, I was called beautiful.  And, being the kind of woman I am, I cannot let well enough alone. I cannot take the compliment to heart and go along my merry way.  Oh no, I have to take time to stop and think about the true nature and construction of beauty.

I spent my winter break in the Texas hill country, so I was surrounded by beauty of the more obvious kind.  The area from just north of Austin to just south of San Antonio provides some of the most aesthetically appealing landscape you'll find anywhere.  Downtown Austin is one of the loveliest downtown areas I've ever wandered (and I've whiled away some deliciously lonely hours in many-a-downtown scene). So much beauty in one locale; I had to catch my breath several times (despite the rain and the cold).

However, I must admit, I was thrown a little off balance by the way people around me -- the sea of nameless faces rushing here and there -- did not seem to see the same things I saw.  "Of course," I reminded myself, "they see this all of the time."  And, there-in lies the rub, right?  However one defines or constructs beauty, being in constant contact, having consistent access to the beauty, lessens its shine, if we're not careful. So, for these people, rushing around downtown, the environment had become commonplace and the hour inappropriate for beauty.

I do not pretend to have all the answers, but I try to be aware of small moments of great beauty in my daily life. Some people might say that's difficult to do, living in Lubbock, Texas.  However, I would beg to differ.  There are so many beautiful sights, sounds, and people.  Especially the people.

So, my challenge to you (whoever you are, reading this) and more specifically to myself, is to actively acknowledge those moments of beauty, and to seek to be more perceptive of them.  To appreciate and recognize beauty and talent and joy in the most unexpected context.  I know my life will be fuller and richer for it.