Rosie Wench's Cottage

But it is not beautiful. I have seen lines which make me weep, but few paintings, I have seen interesting creations that left me no different for having seen it, I have no vision of something other than I have known.

I have seen and known the worst of the human condition. I have seen ugliness, but what I haven't seen is beauty. We only have what we have always had.

I have rarely seen anything I would call beautiful or even aesthetically integrated.

Beauty has never only been about 'looking nice'. It can feel disturbing, look at something like the ballet ' The Rite of Spring' with music by Igor Stravinsky. It's neither peaceful, nor comforting, but it draws you in regardless.

There are great literary classics that deal with the hardest of human struggles, there are paintings depicting saddening, frightening or enraging scenes from history, myth and Scripture.

But they are not ugly, they're not tasteless, whatever we feel we are not unmoved or even repulsed.

And this is because the artists knew/know Beauty. We might not be able to put words to it. But we Know.

The feeling from being in Nature, that we are a part of something way bigger than ourselves. Whether we call it Divine or not, we're directed above and beyond the mundane.

The beauty that comes from love, integrity, perseverance, greatness, passion, vision, perfection of form, strength and intelligence, that is recognized in the soul of the viewer. Those private moments when they see themselves in that moment of their own pinnacle or see something that is so beautiful we draw ourselves to be worthy of it.

Especially those found in the school of romanticism.

A Seeker's Prayer – St. Anselm of Canterbury

But it is not beautiful. I have seen lines which make me weep, but few paintings, I have seen interesting creations that left me no different for having seen it, I have no vision of something other than I have known.

I have seen and known the worst of the human condition. I have seen ugliness, but what I haven't seen is beauty. We only have what we have always had.

I have rarely seen anything I would call beautiful or even aesthetically integrated.

Beauty has never only been about 'looking nice'. It can feel disturbing, look at something like the ballet ' The Rite of Spring' with music by Igor Stravinsky. It's neither peaceful, nor comforting, but it draws you in regardless.

There are great literary classics that deal with the hardest of human struggles, there are paintings depicting saddening, frightening or enraging scenes from history, myth and Scripture.

But they are not ugly, they're not tasteless, whatever we feel we are not unmoved or even repulsed.

And this is because the artists knew/know Beauty. We might not be able to put words to it. But we Know.

The feeling from being in Nature, that we are a part of something way bigger than ourselves. Whether we call it Divine or not, we're directed above and beyond the mundane.

Bad news.

But at the same time, shouldn't the efforts also include helping these families to have the availability of better 'coping strategies' than selling their young daughters off?

If the underlying culture is that daughters are not part of their birth family, but of their future husband's family, then regardless of the situation, the girls are always going to get the filthy end of the stick.

Look at the girls being sold off in Afghanistan.

It's a similar reason behind why so many girl babies in China and up dead.