Beauty in the Abnormal
I don’t remember ever hearing someone exclaim, “That tree is beautiful!” in the middle of summer, but I hardly go through a day in the fall without hearing someone admire how beautiful the changing colors of leaves are in the fall. We seem content to socially accept that trees are most beautiful when they are in an unusual state of death or transition. Ask a child what color a tree is, and they will likely say green. And I remember enough from high school science to know that trees are healthy and thriving when they are green. Yet it is when trees turn yellow, orange, and red that we marvel at their beauty. I think it fair to say that we think trees are most beautiful when they are in a state of abnormality, and that itself strikes me as abnormal.
It also makes me wonder what other forms of beauty ascribe to the same dynamic; to what other parts of our life do we attribute beauty when they are abnormal? And conversely, to what do we ascribe beauty only when it meets our prescribed expectations of normality? Music, for example, contains both standards for beauty. In jazz, improvisation is expected and valued. Though you may hear the same song more than once, each artist can bring a welcome change to the song with each performance. At a philharmonic concert, however, one might expect to hear Mozart’s Magic Flute exactly as it was prescribed by Mozart, and any deviation would be seen as a lack of skill. This debate seems most at a head in marketing. Lay’s potato chips print their bags with a diversity of human faces. Modelling agencies are increasing ads with people who have what the industry has traditionally considered abnormal shapes, sizes, skin tones and conditions, etc. It is a pleasant change to see such diversity, and I think it fascinating that rather than letting marketing prescribe beauty standards we now expect them to mirror a more authentic beauty found in diversity. Though we still have a long way to go.
Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but that eye seems inconsistent in its demands for meeting expectations of beauty. At times we demand normalcy and consistency, yet at others we expect deviance and obscurity. And I am wary of how that inconsistency plays out in our views of humanity and God. To what standard of beauty do we hold each other in church, and what plumb line do we use to determine the beauty of the divine? Do we expect normalcy, or can we find beauty in the abnormal as we do with trees in the fall? Is God and God’s work only to be appreciated when it follows our expectations, or can we find beauty and appreciation when it is unusual and unexpected? Will we only compliment one another for meeting spiritual expectations, or can we find beauty in another’s brokenness, obscurity, and abnormality?
Like trees in the fall or a good jazz improvisation, I find the divine, and the image of the divine in people, most compelling, fascinating, and beautiful in its abnormality, unexpected showings, and uniqueness. And I find myself increasingly disappointed when I expect God and others to perform as I would demand a philharmonic orchestra. I would like to find beauty in the abnormal, and I pray that God will give me eyes to see creation in all of its beauty, especially where I least expect it.
