The Delightful Threads
As I read through Russ Roberts’s Story of My Life I began to think more deeply about the beauty that exists in connections. That is, the pleasure we derive from the threads that connect us to other people, groups….
Mid Ponder, I peered left onto my second monitor where the image of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delight was set as my background and began staring into the stories portrayed in the painting. I have been long fascinated by this painting for a multitude of reasons yet this article managed to shine a new light upon the painting, revealing a new beauty to me.
I began to look deeply into the the individuals portrayed in the painting; each his own character, each his own story. One can even imagine their life outside of the painting. The twisting convoluted path that lead them to this twisted convoluted (in a pretty way) painting.
However, as much beauty one can find in the path and its curves, this painting and its static nature pulls focus onto the beauty found in the relative intertwines of said paths. The beauty in relation, in connection. The beauty found in the threads tying the individuals to each other, to the fabric of what is around them.
In looking at the world around me I can see — much in the same way as the painting — that in pondering the still image of the world there is an informative beauty. A beauty that pushes (تحثنا) us to focus on the delight we can derive from the infinite threading which tethers us to the fabric of what is around us (the infinite in-betweenness -البين-) rather than the finite area which our individual portraits occupies.
Good-luck, fellow tethered individuals.
