Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Price of Beauty


As the year grows old, the sun shares but miserly portions of its light and heat and the sky turns grey; not an ominous, black-grey - the harbinger of impending celestial tumult that inspires a delightful terror - but the mournful, muddled grey of a neglected canvas left for too long in the unmerciful elements. Ever in tune with nature, my shrinking soul mourns the loss of life and colour.


If we listen to our bodies they will tell us what we need. When I'm weak in body I crave red meat but when I'm depleted in spirit I crave BEAUTY. To sate my spiritual appetite I can sample from a smorgasbord of art, literature, music or poetry - within my financial means that is - which, presently, is very mean indeed!


Luckily, there is great beauty to be enjoyed for a song! Joseph Conrad's "Victory" that I borrowed from a friend's library and just finished a couple of weeks ago lifted at least 2 veils of mourning from my eyes. Public libraries are incredible sources of free entertainment; besides a book for every taste they also carry a wide array of magazines and periodicals, movies and music DVDs and all for free. I cannot understand how someone can be without a library card.