I've been reading a lot about St. Augustine's notion of beauty. At one point in his exposition of Psalm 44, the venerable Bishop of Hippo notes that God "who sees you within loves you within; he loves you within, and you must love him within, for he fashions your inner beauty" (Expositions of the Psalms (trans. Maria Boulding. Hyde Park: New City Press, 2000, 306). OK, so Augustine is talking about the renewal of one's conscience and the granting of right intentions to sinners, but really, doesn't it just sound like that cheesy line you heard in a million Disney movies growing up about beauty only being skin deep? Show me the ugly person who felt comforted by this, and I'll cede this blog-space to you. As my hairline continues its long pilgrimage of recession away from my forehead, I can tell you I'm not buying it. I'm more inclined, to ask with Jack Nicholson's Melvin Udall: "what if this is as good as it gets?"
Well, anyway, the real reason I am breaking on page 10 of a 15 pager due at 5pm to offer such pearls of wisdom is to attempt to concoct a legitimate reason for posting this AWESOME video from the Patriots-Packers game last night. Thanks to Tommy Grimm for sharing. Who says big men can't gun it? Guess it really does prove the old cliche...you can't judge a book by its cover...OK, enough...just watch and be amazed...
So we're probably both stretching it too far, but this reminded me of a recent quote from (the admittedly embattled) Father Arsenios:
ReplyDelete“This is the secret of success for anywhere in the world, not just the monastery,” he says, and then goes on to describe pretty much word for word the first rule of improvisational comedy, or for that matter any successful collaborative enterprise. Take whatever is thrown at you and build upon it. “Yes … and” rather than “No … but.” “The idiot is bound by his pride,” he says. “It always has to be his way. This is also true of the person who is deceptive or doing things wrong: he always tries to justify himself. A person who is bright in regard to his spiritual life is humble. He accepts what others tell him—criticism, ideas—and he works with them.”