On Beauty & Patterns

What is Beauty? They say it’s in the eye of the beholder. Can beauty exist without someone to see it and call it beautiful? I can’t answer that, but while pondering what beauty is as we perceive it, my mind started to link things together that for me was very profound. I don’t for a moment think that I am the first to consider these things in this way, but… Well, I’ll try to explain myself.

First beauty is a pattern. We see something that we recognize as beautiful and it is always going to consist of a pattern of some sort. There’s all kinds of patterns in nature. Look if you want. Here is a full encyclopedia article on just that.

If you look at nature closely enough you’ll find:
Continue reading On Beauty & Patterns

The deep and lovely dark…

Doctor Who - Listen

“The deep and lovely dark. We’d never see the stars without it.”
The Doctor — Doctor Who S08E04 ‘Listen’

The Doctor at the end of a speech about the “superpower” of fear, and the reasons to harness and use it. The character Clara summarizes and expounds on this idea near the end of the episode:

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you? Fear is a superpower. Fear can make you faster and cleverer and stronger. … You’re always going to be afraid, even if you learn to hide it. Fear is like a companion, a constant companion, always there. But it’s okay because fear can bring us together. Fear can bring you home. Fear makes companions of us all.” Clara — Doctor Who S08E04 ‘Listen’

Started re-watching the latest season (season 8 of the new series) of Doctor Who, as the last episode should be coming out in a couple of days. For the most part, I haven’t been a big fan of most of this season, but the first several were pretty good. And the second to last one kind of grabbed my attention too. It’s interesting to note that most of the episodes that I have liked from this season were written or co-written by Moffat. The other episodes haven’t necessarily been bad. They had great acting and production values as usual. It’s just that the writing (the plot and banter) just did not grab me and hold my interest. The first time watching many of them, I got involved doing something else while watching. Still there are quite a few episodes, this one included, that grabbed my from the get go and wouldn’t let go.

So hard to see the beauty.

Some days it is SO hard to see the beauty… Today (7/28/2013) was one of those days.

I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I had an experience with a supervisor / co-worker and supposed comrade / shipmate which shook my faith in humanity. The discovery initially just made me angry. But the action was so blatant and apparently vindictive. The person lied and plead ignorance when I initially asked them about it, and then changed their story and lied to me again when I confronted them with the truth. The event was minor but the vindictiveness of it, the dishonesty, and what it appeared to reveal of this person’s opinion of me… these things quickly turned my initial anger to a deep feeling of sadness and has left me with a very negative outlook on humanity and life. Continue reading So hard to see the beauty.