As I leave this blog at the closing of my senior year of high school, uncertain about whether it will remain alive or drift like a tumbleweed through the Interwebs, I would like to get a wee bit philosophical and figuratively sign my name goodbye through this post. At the beginning of writing this blog, I chose my perspective "lens" to be structure and design, simply because I found looking at symbolism, design, and visual art to be fascinating. I did not suspect in the slightest that I would find some deeper meaning in the observations I was making of the links I was embedding. But as I conclude both my senior year of high school and this blog, I am shocked and pleasantly surprised to conclude that if my blog has enlightened readers to any degree, it has enlightened me significantly more.
You see, at the beginning of the year in English, we were talking extensively about the stories that we tell about ourselves, their complexity, and their value. I believed then that I stood for several things: environmentalism, moderation of luxuries, empathy. One thing that did not appear at all in that list of words with which I construct the mirror through which I see myself was beauty.
When I say "beauty", I mean the beauty of all things, animate and inanimate, but more specifically, the beauty of all things constructed. The concept of design inherently suggests that there is a maker behind every product discussed. This really struck me as I look back on all my posts, which consistently analyzed man-made nouns like literature, natural parks, video games, social networking sites, household objects, etc. The sheer amount of insight I was able to wring out of each of these seemingly ordinary things astonished me, and slowly inscribed a new conviction in my story I tell about myself.
Don't look at anything just once. There is more there than you suspect.
Actively searching for and appreciating the beauty of intentional construction and design around us is vitally important in order to have truly lived and absorbed life completely. I will pass this nugget of wisdom down to my children and include it in my list of beliefs henceforth. I am glad I didn't look back at this blog just once. There was far more value than I expected.
You see, at the beginning of the year in English, we were talking extensively about the stories that we tell about ourselves, their complexity, and their value. I believed then that I stood for several things: environmentalism, moderation of luxuries, empathy. One thing that did not appear at all in that list of words with which I construct the mirror through which I see myself was beauty.
When I say "beauty", I mean the beauty of all things, animate and inanimate, but more specifically, the beauty of all things constructed. The concept of design inherently suggests that there is a maker behind every product discussed. This really struck me as I look back on all my posts, which consistently analyzed man-made nouns like literature, natural parks, video games, social networking sites, household objects, etc. The sheer amount of insight I was able to wring out of each of these seemingly ordinary things astonished me, and slowly inscribed a new conviction in my story I tell about myself.
Don't look at anything just once. There is more there than you suspect.
Actively searching for and appreciating the beauty of intentional construction and design around us is vitally important in order to have truly lived and absorbed life completely. I will pass this nugget of wisdom down to my children and include it in my list of beliefs henceforth. I am glad I didn't look back at this blog just once. There was far more value than I expected.
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