When was the last time you got out of your head and appreciated beauty?Ā
Iris Murdoch, in The Sovereignty of Good, writes: āThe self, the place where we live, is a place of illusion. Goodness is connected with the attempt to see the unself, to see and to respond to the real world in the light of a virtuous consciousness.āĀ
The term Murdoch coined, the āunself,ā is a shift away from the insatiable ego that is innate to the human mind, developed through years of survival, by focusing on the beauties of the world. This trains the brain to loosen the grip we have on our own self-centeredness to be more selfless.Ā
The last time I truly stopped and embraced something for its own sake was over a bagel: A bagel that was toasted for two minutes on high, assembled with cream cheese and strawberry jelly on one half and melted butter on the other, and enjoyed outside in 35 degree weather. I arranged the bagel in Marcianoās dining hall, so I felt the responsibility of making it come into existence. I felt almost maternal toward it, but was still eager to have it be a part of me by consumption.Ā
The feeling I had while eating my bagel was almost transcendent. There was a contradiction between the East Coast winter paresthesia-ing my skin while heat radiated from the toasted bagel in my hands. With every bite, my body instinctively gravitated towards whatever warmth it could get, serving my consciousness a reminder of my bodyās basic functions.Ā
For the first time in a long while, I wasnāt preoccupied with the woes of life. All I had to do was experience being fully present. This moment of selflessness, though not absolute, doesnāt score me any moral points or heighten my virtuousness. The focus was on the bagel simply because… it just was.Ā
Sure, I couldāve stayed inside the dining hall radiating with room-temperature warmth, but I didnāt have the time. In general, I want to start intentionally choosing to be in spaces that can make me detach from convenience and move toward experiences I can feel.Ā
Appreciating beauty doesnāt have to be some lifeāaltering, contemplative pilgrimage. It could be focusing on the small moments in life. Sometimes, you just sit in it and let the beauty dissect you, taking away bits of your mind from yourself and stitching it into the world. I often choose to find that beauty in tasting food.Ā
In a world where everything is constantly fighting for my visual attention, eating is one of the few moments where I become aware of what Iām doing. When I eat, I think more deliberately about what Iām consuming and tasting than I do with my other senses. With every bite, there is a choice about whether or not to take another.Ā
āUnselfingā by de-centering ourselves and centering the beauty around us definitely mitigates our ego. Maybe thereās some avoidance in not confronting what powers the ego and simply distracting with beauty, but it is a way to genuinely be appreciative of the world around us instead of immersed in a world we created within us.Ā
To me, food is an art. The fact that I get to taste at all is beautiful.
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