Mistaking Pretty for Beauty

I think the mistake most of us make about beauty is that we expect it to be pretty—to please us with its proportions, its balance, its harmony, its rhyme. If those are your requirements, I doubt I will be able to talk you out of them, but they will definitely cut down on how much beauty you see. Because whether you’re focused on the beauty of nature or the beauty of the arts, there is a lot of terrible beauty out there—a lot of tragic beauty, ruined beauty, beauty that has been hurt so badly it hurts you too. 

Once, after…