Student Work

This is a draft of an essay in response to the Washington Post story I had my students read called "Pearls Before Breakfast." I then had them reflect on the nature of beauty and what that means to them.

I turned them loose to put their thoughts into their own words. My only caveat: use voice and be original.

Here is Brady's essay. I'm still in awe, and I read this two weeks ago. Don't worry. I got his permission to share it and post it on here.

I also learned from his mother at conferences yesterday that Brady has earned a scholarship to Richmond University in London. When you read this, you will know why.

Beauty

When I started this assignment, I had no idea what I was going to focus on. I rarely procrastinate, but this time I took as long as possible before writing. The idea of the paper had to be an offshoot from beauty – that I knew – but that was general and not something I was particularly excited about. So, sitting here listening to Smetana’s “Die Moldau,” I finally know what I want to write.

I don’t think beauty is abstract. I am a realist. I live relentlessly in reality and anything full of cheese or intangible makes me mad.

“Oh really, you think France is 30,000 miles away? Yeah, more like 4,000 – 30,000 miles is like going around the Earth twice, Ptolemy. Nice try.”

Beauty is not a young boy making a craft from macaroni noodles and then handing it to his mother, who cries a single silver tear.

Beauty is not the first black president of the United States. Though it is wonderful, it is not beautiful.

And beauty is certainly not a middle aged woman who lost 60 pounds all by herself.

Beauty is something we can hear. Maybe something we can see, read. Something we can touch. It is an Aston Martin, da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks, Moart’s “Marriage of Fiaro,” Goethe’s Faust, Prague, and flawless foie gras – not too salty, not too boring.

Beauty is not a woman or a man. I have on simple stipulation for beauty: it has to be made. Yes, humans are made, but not in the same way. Humans are born, but born being attractive is not beauty. Lucky you, your DNA assembled in a way where you happen to have a normal nose and large almond eyes.

But when someone puts effort into something, crafting it with their own hands and mind – a piece that rustles up emotions in another individual – that is beauty. One the other hand, the idea of beauty is in the eye of the beholder holds some truth. One might not think Faust is good or that Virgin of the Rocks is a bit dull, but I think they are both pretty substantial pieces of human expression (pardon the cheese – sometimes you just need a big slice of bushe de chevre to wash the Savignon down).

There are a lot of beautiful things in this world, probably millions. Maybe even billions, but that’s hasty – most people don’t realize that a billion is a thousand million, which is a hell of a number. Yet with all these billions of beautiful things, none of them are humans. None of them are acts, none of them are an event, and not a single one has ever involved MTV.

I have a PhD in Truth, and you just got my prescription.