Maggie Smith (the poet not the actor) tells the story where one morning while looking out her bathroom window, she couldn’t believe what she saw: the sky—magenta, aqua, purple. She shouted to her kids, “hurry, look out back!”
Her son ran to the back of the house, but her daughter stopped to ask, “what’s wrong?”
“Nothing! It’s just a beauty emergency.”
And these kids knew what she was talking about. They knew that a Beauty Emergency is “something you have to stop and pay attention to right at that moment, because it’s fleeting.”
Maggie Smith relays this story in one of my all-time favourite Unstucking books, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change.
There will be all kinds of beauty emergencies in the world, in this week—there for those interruptible kinds, willing to stop and look.
Quote
“I think of beauty as an absolute necessity. I don’t think it’s a privilege or an indulgence, it’s not even a quest. I think it’s almost like knowledge, which is to say, it’s what we were born for. I think finding, incorporating and then representing beauty is what humans do. With or without authorities telling us what it is, I think it would exist in any case.
The startle and the wonder of being in this place. This overwhelming beauty—some of it is natural, some of it is man-made, some of it is casual, some of it is a mere glance—is an absolute necessity. I don’t think we can do without it any more than we can do without dreams or oxygen.”
—Toni Morrison
Question
If beauty, and your own delight in what you find beautiful, was to become as necessary as dreams or oxygen, what would change for you?
Poem
[I won’t be able to write from the grave]
I won’t be able to write from the grave
so let me tell you what I love:
oil, vinegar, salt, lettuce, brown bread, butter,
cheese and wine, a windy day, a fireplace,
the children nearby, poems and songs,
a friend sleeping in my bed—
and the short northern nights.
—Fanny Howe
Thanks for reading,
Lance Odegard
unstucking.co
Hi there! 👋 My name’s Lance - I’m a writer, coach, and learning designer from Vancouver BC, Canada. In this publication, you’ll find a growing archive of resources for those looking for creativity fuel to keep moving and making. Thanks for stopping by.
1+1+1 is a free weekly nudge, a creative spark, a shot in the arm to keep you moving. One quote, one question, one poem to get unstuck.
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Love this one of course!!! Beauty is a necessity!!!