"This is the position we are in when confronted by beauty. The world is full of beauty, but the beauty is incomplete. Our puzzlement about what beauty is, what it means, and what (if anything) it is there for is the inevitable result of looking at one part of a larger whole. Beauty, in other words, is another echo of a voice - a voice which (from the evidence before us) might be saying one of several things, but which, were we to hear it in all its fullness, would make sense of what we presently see and hear and know and love and call 'beautiful.'"
Simply Christian
by N. T. Wright
To me, this section raises the question if we are able to fully apprehend/comprehend, or even appreciate, beauty. Wright seems to be saying that if we could see beauty in its fullness, then we could fully grasp it. But I'd like to raise the question:
Can we do that?
When we see beauty, many times we do not ponder its incompleteness - we try to appreciate it, however we may do that. It may not be until some time later that we realize its incompleteness for the first time. And when we do, the object itself becomes no less beautiful. We just understand it more fully.
And can we understand enough to find the missing ingredient that will make us appreciate and know beauty to its fullest? I don't think so. It doesn't seem to be a matter of understanding. At this point, the awesomeness of beauty is in just that - awesome being: "Extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear." Beauty can be all of these things. Which makes me realize:
Beauty is bigger than us.
I can only handle it in small doses. Anything more would make my head explode. I simply cannot take beauty in its completeness.
But oh my, what a gorgeous explosion it would be...
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