The Beauty We Share

I have a guest blogger today.  I do not know the person's name or gender or anything else.  I came across this comment written anonymously in the Georgia Straight, one of Vancouver's free weekly newspapers, in their Confessions Column.  Here it is:

"suddenly I'm astounded by the beauty of everyone. Not in a sexual way at all- just appreciating people & how they look almost as art. But not only the "conventional" beautiful people--I find the beauty in all of you people. The old Asian men & women in transit, the young adults with lots of acne, the standard looking people in the street. Everyone has beauty in them...I love you all! I'm confessing on here & I did tell some friends how I felt but no one really seemed to get what I was trying to say."

I sometimes experience this myself and I only wish I knew how to contact the author of this quote to mention this because I know what a lonely experience this can be.  I also recall the first time it happened to me.  It was during the Luminaires or Lantern Festival that occurs on the last Saturday night of July at Vancouver's Trout Lake.  It is a very magical festival when many bring their home made lanterns, candles or torches and there is music, dancing, stilt walking and fire juggling and more.  It is a time without the aid of drugs to experience a heightened collective sense of the beauty and wonder of our shared humanity.  This would have been, I think, my third time at the Luminaires.  The year was 2001.  I slowed my pace as I was walking with people around the lake, then stood still by a weeping willow tree to watch and observe those passing by me.  Suddenly, each person I saw became somehow transfigured.  I had a sense of who each person was, of the precious beauty and immeasurable value of every life.  I had a sense of the gift that each person here was and is to the world.  I had a sense of people who feel pain and pleasure, joy and sadness, people with dreams and ideals, people who feel they have failed in life and need help to get up again, people who loved, were loved, needed to be loved, and needed to love.  I became dizzy and almost fainted from the overwhelming emotion that swept over me.

I have had this sensation, or revelation, many times since: sometimes on the bus, or the sidewalk or the escalator.  It doesn't matter who it is.  Each carries their own beauty.  I have to force myself to not stare at some of them and make them uncomfortable.

I also have to admit that this experience doesn't occur for me anywhere often enough.  I still often forget about the personhood of those I encounter in public, I still more often than not view strangers as obstacles, or as irritants, though I am taking measures to change this.  For example, twice today, I found myself getting annoyed at children who were excited and playing though not necessarily in appropriate or safe places and I became so concerned with not tripping over them or feeling annoyed at being bumped against that I had to stop and remind myself that they were expressing joy and fun and really isn't this much better than hearing them cry?

Here is what I propose to do.  First, I am going to accept that more often than not I find people in public to be annoying.  This is understandable.  Most of us go around as if we are the only ones who are there.  It isn't intentional rudeness.  It is rather a survival mechanism that helps many get through the day.  So, I am going to remind myself every time I am out in public, say, once every block or so.  I am going to tell myself that these people are ignorant of those around them, not because of intentional bad manners but because this is their way of coping.  Then I am going to remind myself that each one is still beautiful, even if I would rather smack them upside the head while praying that there will be someone else nearby showing me the same mercy and consideration.