The Beholder

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There is so much beauty in this world. Sometimes I just seem to be drowning in it. I'm walking down a spiral staircase and I look and I see a pattern. It's swirling as it goes down like a giant man made nautilus. It was incredible and to think if I wasn't paying attention I would have missed it. I've come down these stairs so many times and I missed it. I start to wonder how many wonderful things I've been missing because I'm too preoccupied. It is that instinct to see what is interesting and to tell others about it that drives me to write and that draws me to other people who have an eye for the wonders of everyday life.

Beauty doesn't come in visual forms. It can be situational. I call it a life poem. It's beautiful in its own mysterious way. Situations where the irony is so thick that fiction would deem it to unrealistic. Life is filled with unbelievable plot twists, larger than life characters, people so incredibly crazy that their insanity can only make you smile with delight. People ere funny, laugh out loud funny. I remember meeting someone who had such bad conversation skills it was like he was angry at me, every question elicited a one or two word answer. At first I thought he may have been preoccupied, but the later when I asked if he was busy before the conversation started he said he wasn't and I asked several times if something was wrong. I couldn't believe he didn't see himself at all. His self image was so twisted that all I could do is laugh to myself. Life is a sitcom and God has a great sense of humor.


I call it the eye. It's a way of seeing the world with wonder. Instead of taking it all for granted, people with the eye see the beauty m the absurdity and the tragedy and the wonder of everyday existence. I have the eye. As children I think we all have it. If you look at children they stare at people and their parents scold them saying it's not polite. I walk through life filled with a reverence for existence. I'm the child who still stares. I'm drawn to other people with the eye. Artists and writers, teachers and musicians. I am the disobedient child. One of the misfits who thinks the greatest pleasure in life is life itself. Next greatest joy in life is being able to share a glimpse of what I see with other people who can appreciate it.