Conquering Ugliness in the World

colinchamp December 6, 2020 3 Comments

There is an ugliness in the world. It is spreading in our communities, workplaces, our online sites, our news sources, and, of course, social media – in fact, it is fueled by social media. This ugliness is preceded by intense negativity, intermixed with anger, meanness, and selfishness. We are all falling victim to it to some degree and online platforms, masks, and other barriers that remove the normal human elements of interaction are only worsening the ugliness. Attacking others, openly criticizing in public, bombarding with offensive comments, trying to embarrass, shaming and intimidating others, and silencing anyone who doesn’t agree with our opinions would have been egregious insults to our character and morals, directly opposing the central tenets of how our parents and grandparents raised us – if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated. The list of these maxims goes on and on, but seems to have been thrown out by ugliness.

Somewhere along the way, it became not only acceptable, but encouraged to go against these once central tenets to attack our neighbors, name call, shame and silence them, and do whatever it takes to make them look bad. This direct insult on humanity is running our communities and its ruining our health (physical and mental).

While I hate to discuss such a negative (and ugly) topic, the first step to solving a problem is addressing the problem. I love to write about all the positives in the world on my website and newsletter, but sometimes we must approach the negatives to improve them so that there are more positives to later discuss. This problem of ugliness is palpable. We have had trouble putting our finger on it, but upon discussing the importance of beauty around us earlier this year (and the importance of good form, fare bella figura, and arete) we realized just how much this is affecting people. There is much beauty in our lives that we encounter on a daily basis, and it cannot be replaced through computers, televisions, consumerism, or the fake words without actions that seem to have defined 2020. Pretending it can is literally driving people crazy.

For instance, in Japan, more people died from suicide last month than from Covid in all of 2020. All we see is ugly. We are stuck at home. Parks are closed. Gardens are closed. The beauty in normal human interaction has been covered up with masks, or relegated to Zoom calls or phone calls. We are pushed to the internet and social media for information – both of which thrive on pure ugliness (with the latter literally having algorithms to maximize ugliness between people to create controversy). We need human interaction and thrive on it and the beauty that lies within.

This is why people spend countless amounts of money and time flying to visit the beautiful Renaissance city of Florence, and why it remains one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. People from all over the world visit Florence, stay in its hotels, tour its countless museums and historic buildings, and crowd in with clusters of other tourists in uncomfortably tight spaces to see the beautiful architectural marvels like the Duomo, and the greatest statues in the world, like Michelangelo’s David or the incredible collection sitting outside for the public to view for free in the Piazza della Signoria (pictured above), like Perseus with the Head of Medusa. It is no surprise that Florentine philosophers like Marsilio Ficino, who led the Platonic Academy of Florence, believed that an appreciation of earthly beauty leads to an understanding of the beauty of God.

We crave beauty and go to distances to have it in our lives. We need beauty and cannot live without it. Our mental and physical health depends on it – for instance, patients who are placed in a room with a view of nature after surgery heal more quickly with less pain. Conversely, we, as did our ancestors, know deep down inside the dangers of ugliness, its pervasiveness, its contagiousness, and its addictiveness.

2020 has been the year of the incredibly infectious Covid, but it has also been the year of the spread of ugliness. The latter may be worse for our health and future. While Covid will eventually fall, resolving the first, the wounds of ugliness could take much longer to heal.

This month please consider those aspects of our lives that make it so beautiful to live and focus on them. Do not forget to meet with friends and family, get outside, go for walks and hikes, socialize, and create beauty. All of this can be done safely and at your comfort zone. All of this can be done without the anger and judgement that follows Covid rules and sanctions these days. And all of this can be done to avoid the ugliness that is constantly trying to creep into our lives.

For Thanksgiving this year, we made the trip back to Pittsburgh. We celebrated at our cousins’ beautiful new home in Sewickley, PA with my mother and their children. We normally try to spend as much time as possible with them throughout the year, but Covid has largely interfered with these efforts (though we did get to Italy with them last year right before the outbreak – OK, it was actually during the outbreak). After leaving their home in the beautiful town of Sewickley, it dawned on us how much beauty surrounds our interactions with them. The conversations are always fun, encouraging, full of humor (some very irreverent), reminiscing on the good times past, and planning for the good times to come – and always involving good food and wine. It is beauty all around us. Thanksgiving just happened to be in one of our favorite towns in the world. I may be a bit biased because I went to high school there (and yes, Al Bundy, we won the state Championship in 1997), but the entire town was created around the hillsides just outside of Pittsburgh because of their beauty.

Dating back to the late 1700’s, the town has been influenced by European immigrants and many of the houses are well over one or more centuries old. All around, one can see charming houses, well-manicured lawns, residents pridefully tending to their gardens always happy to say hello, non-chain restaurants and boutiques, and pedestrian-orientation streets with sidewalks often made of herringbone patterned brick. The city is so beautiful that they filmed the movie Houseguest starring academy award winner Sinbad there (they actually filmed a bunch of decent movies there, including Jack Reacher, but you still have to love those 90s actors like Sinbad). The town is undeniably charming and simply walking around within it puts a smile on your face and provides a genuinely nice feeling. Beauty seems to have this effect.

As the ugly year of 2020 comes to a close, I ask you to think about ways to bring more beauty into your life and those around you. Emphasis on our local communities, supporting small businesses over big box stores, cultivating even stronger relationships with friends and families, laughing and joking, working in our gardens or embracing other artistic outlets – these are the things that make us happy, make our lives beautiful, and remove ugliness from the world, both figuratively and practically.

It might just be enough for us to forget about 2020 and look forward to a beautiful future.

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