A Thing Of Beauty!
Berna Cagley
Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn moreMay 4, 2024Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail to a friendPrint All my life I have been searching for the "thing" called beauty. Were it not for poets and philosophers, prophets and artists, various faith traditions, I would come up empty. But along the way, beauty keeps surfacing and manifests itself in all kinds of ways. My journal is filled with these random notes, sans a method.
Philosophers, poets and novelists tell us that truth, goodness and beauty are the three great transcendentals. Emerson sees beauty as "the flowering of virtue." Emily Dickinson warns us that chasing beauty makes it vanish; leave it alone and "it abides" (I'm trying to figure that out).
Then we hear St. Augustine's anguished cry: that he loved God, whom he called beauty, so late in his life. Me too, so late in realizing that God is beauty, as well as love and mercy. Look into the mirror. Do you see beauty? Malcolm Muggeridge called Mother Teresa of Kolkata "something beautiful for God" though physically, she would not have qualified for the Miss India beauty contest.
At a nursing home I recently visited, a notice proclaimed that the beautician would arrive at 2 o'clock on Tuesday and Thursday. What a vocation! Did you know that Anwar el-Sadat said that beauty came to be his presiding ideal? My presiding ideal is the Packers winning the Super Bowl (again).
In Philosophy 101, the professor told us ignorant sophomores that Hegel maintained that "beauty is merely the spiritual making itself known sensuously." My classmate Nancy, sitting next to me, was a living example in my eyes.
George Eliot saw beauty in kittens, small downy ducks, toddling babies and, yes, in Hetty Sorrel. I find beauty in snowflakes on the winter window, the cobweb on the porch, in double rainbows. If the failure to appreciate beauty is a crime then I'm guilty, your honor.
Robert McAfee Brown challenges all of us to enjoy beauty when it is present, to unveil beauty where it is hidden, to restore beauty where it is defaced, to create beauty where it is absent. Is it true that beauty can lead us to the truth? Is beauty magnetic, drawing us into God?
Many artists and poets are missionaries of beauty. Have you ever been confused and dumbfounded by beauty, disturbing the soul in a good way? Appreciation of beauty is blocked and short-circuited if we are greedy and egotistical. Sometimes the obscurity of beauty holds an overpowering attraction.
Why does the month of May have more beauty than February? Why is "Gabriel's Oboe" so beautiful, so haunting, so glorious? Thank you, Ennio Morricone (go listen to it now). G.M. Hopkins writes that "Nothing is so beautiful as Spring" but my grandma said nothing is so beautiful as autumn, uncle Joe said summer, cousin Jim voted for winter. Who am I to believe?
Sight and sound give us access to beauty, what about touch, taste and smell? If we don't find beauty in ourselves, chances are we will not find it in Ireland or China or in our home. For some adventurers, beauty is found in danger (I'm not one of them). Shelley speaks of "the enchantment of the heart" and it sounds to me that beauty embraces this experience.
Another question: If beauty is captivating, could it be taken to court for kidnapping? Could God be charged with squandering and prodigality as we ponder the sounds of silence and the multiplicity of stars? While traveling in the Alps, I twice heard the echo of beauty.
The artist who paints beauty deserves a gold medal. It's strange how deep sadness can radiate beauty. An offensive thought: Beauty is capable of deceit. Lord, forgive me for thinking that. The beauty of the body, the beauty of the soul; is there a correspondence here?
In the end, maybe beauty is an eternal mystery, never to be fathomed by our limited intelligence and unstable intuition (yet, we must continue the hunt). A byproduct of beauty draws us out of ourselves, no small miracle. There is a danger of harshness and starkness when beauty is not appreciated.
Endymion is a poem by John Keats first published in 1818 by Taylor and Hessey of Fleet Street in London. John Keats dedicated this poem to the late poet Thomas Chatterton. The poem begins with the line "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". Endymion is written in rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter (also known as heroic couplets). Keats based the poem on the Greek myth of Endymion, the shepherd beloved of the moon goddess Selene. The poem elaborates on the original story and renames Selene "Cynthia" (an alternative name for Artemis).
It starts by painting a rustic scene of trees, rivers, shepherds, and sheep. The shepherds gather around an altar and pray to Pan(God), god of shepherds and flocks. As the youths sing and dance, the elder men sit and talk about what life would be like in the shades of Elysium(place). However, Endymion, the "brain-sick shepherd-prince" of Mt. Latmos, is in a trancelike state, and not participating in their discourse. His sister, Peona, takes him away and brings him to her resting place where he sleeps. After he wakes, he tells Peona of his encounter with Cynthia, and how much he liked her.
Endymion received scathing criticism after its release,[1] and Keats himself noted its diffuse and unappealing style. Keats did not regret writing it, as he likened the process to leaping into the ocean to become more acquainted with his surroundings; in a poem to J. A. Hessey, he expressed that "I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest." However, he did express regret in its publishing, saying "it is not without a feeling of regret that I make [Endymion] public."
Not all critics disliked the work. The poet Thomas Hood wrote 'Written in Keats' Endymion', in which the "Muse... charming the air to music... gave back Endymion in a dreamlike tale". Henry Morley said, "The song of Endymion throbs throughout with a noble poet's sense of all that his art means for him. What mechanical defects there are in it may even serve to quicken our sense of the youth and freshness of this voice of aspiration."
The first line ("A thing of beauty is a joy for ever") is quoted by Mary Poppins in the 1964 Disney movie, while she pulls out a potted plant from her bag. It is also referenced by Willy Wonka in the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory upon introducing the Wonkamobile,[3] and in the 1992 American sports comedy film White Men Can't Jump, written and directed by Ron Shelton.[4] In the beginning of the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine, the Chief Blue Meanie says, "A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever!" as a parody of the poem.[5]
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Yes. I do a lot of exchanges (NOT RETURNS), because the products may not deliver or work as described once you try them out of the store!!!! On every single one of my exchanges, I have always purchased more than what I am exchanging and I have never, ever received a refund for any of the products.
Google it and add your name to the list so that you get paid when Sephora and TRE settle - which they will because violating privacy laws is not cool. Just look at Equifax - they are paying people hundreds/thousands back through the class action lawsuit.
A friend of mine also received an email couple days ago stating "significant return behavior limits the product selection", she have been ROUGE for nearly 3 years(we got into makeup around the same time), we do try quite a good amount of product out and return is unavoidable since we don't have a nearby sephora to test out the product before purchasing. But we do keep majority of it and if they really pull this on us, we may turn away from sephora since the main reason we love sephora is b/c of the lenient return policy and how they make us feel at ease when returning a product.
Same exact thing happened to me today! I don't live anywhere near Sephora so I don't have a choice but to order online and if it doesn't work out then I return it but always within a day or two of receiving it. The only reason I shop with Sephora is because they had such a great return policy which I did need to use given the fact that I live nowhere near as Sephora. I can't go and get samples or try things out in store. Especially Foundation, I have the hardest time getting matched with the foundation so every time I decide to try a new Foundation I have to order several colors in order to find the right one. Maybe they should offer to send out samples so people can try this stuff and then, buy it . it would probably save them some money and headache and prevent people from having to return things that don't work out for them.
If this is true, the third party might have flagged you for excessive returns no matter what the reason. Some customers seek to abuse the return policy ( not saying that any of the posters here have done so) and as a result stores change their policies, making it hard for the rest of us.
True. I was recently given a notice too and I have been a VIB Rouge member for 4 years. If Sephora didn't already know, that means customers like us have spent over $4000 - shouldn't we be able to return the things that does not work out for us? Like hello Sephora, there's a reason why we are Rouge members. We like to try out things and quite frankly, Sephora store items are always out of stock! Also, what happens when we get first release for online products because we are Rouge? Or what happens when we purchase online exclusive items - HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET A SAMPLE/TESTER FIRST? Also, Sephora has a e-commerce platform for a reason. If I do not wish to make a trip down to a crowded Sephora and instead buy things online...again...how am I supposed to get a tester???
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