Go grocery-shopping with She Who Must Be Loved, and centuries of civilised debate begin ringing in one’s ears. I pick something off the supermarket shelf, and the Spanish Inquisition starts up like it was 1493 all over again. “Do you really need it? Why? What about this one instead? Isn’t it better?” (Insert ‘nicer’, ‘handier’, [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Beauty and truth: All we need/know?

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Go grocery-shopping with She Who Must Be Loved, and centuries of civilised debate begin ringing in one’s ears. I pick something off the supermarket shelf, and the Spanish Inquisition starts up like it was 1493 all over again. “Do you really need it? Why? What about this one instead? Isn’t it better?” (Insert ‘nicer’, ‘handier’, ‘smarter’, etc. as appropriate.) Of course, the boot is on the other foot when She and I go gift-shopping – especially if the ‘gifts’ are purchases for Self thinly disguised as The Need of The Hour.

“Could you really wear something like that? How? Where to? What for? Isn’t the one you already have better?” (Do not attempt to do this at home – or in the mall – with your own Spouse of Several Summers; not unless you are a professional, and can assure your readers that no devoted husbands were hurt during the writing of this column.)

Now there is more to this than mere Differences Of Domestic Opinion (or DODO, if you will). The Dichotomy Of Ages (DOA) hangs in the balance. Between man and wife are being bantered the questions that have haunted humanity since the Fall. Is it good to look at? Is it good to eat? Is it true to appearances, or will the apple turn to ashes in the intestines? Essentially, the debate between Truth and Beauty. Wars have been fought over it. Democracies transformed into dictatorships (bad luck, chaps). Even the fate of humankind put to the test because someone asked the question to begin with. Culture deified over common sense because of the wrong answer to the question.

Back in the Garden, the issue was a choice between the Sovereignty of a Benevolent Creator and the Self-will of a Beautiful Creature. Eve won. (As you can see, even today, the man blames the woman, the woman blames the serpent, and the serpent doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

I just had to snake, er sneak, that one in!) Since Eden, the question has troubled all kinds of people. Poets have struck the most sensible (it seems) balance, declaiming that “truth is beauty, beauty truth/that’s all we know, and need to know” (don’t quote me, dears). Priests have plumped in favour of beauty, prophets have opted for truth. Philosophers have been torn between two lovers. Psychologists have dithered, been depressed, slept on it, taken a little pill, gone back to sleep again. Politicians have settled for the tough-minded preference when the times suited it, selecting the tender-minded alternative when the situation called for it. Pedagogues have taught that truth suits certain times, while beauty is attractive in other climes where humankind has made its home…

Speaking of which, the conundrum confronts our country today. In the Beauty camp are those who have breathed a sigh of relief that the times of storm and stress are over (they hope), and are content to breathe the air of freedom for themselves – and die and let live… their case being concreted by walls visibly coming down, democracy in a stronger guise, energy all round, country being made lovely to look at depending on your perspective or blinkers (pick one, dears). In the Truth corner are those few – and increasingly less – who can hardly draw breath between their tears and barely stifled cries on behalf of the poor, the lost, the forgotten, the imprisoned, the marginalised, mixed multitudes seeking answers to questions that will not go away and also still searching for bodies of beloveds to inter to lay grave-less ghosts to rest, widows, orphans.

So how do you feel, what do you think? Should we go with Beauty because it is blissful, tranquil, happiness in a glass cage? Or can and must we ask for Truth, please, if only so that those denied answers can be at peace again?




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