In The Architecture of Happiness Alain de Botton offers an interesting perspective on the relationship between architecture, philosophy, psychology, ect. In one discussion on how especially beautiful things make us feel he writes…
“The more beautiful something is, the sadder we risk feeling…Our sadness won’t be one of the searing kind but more like a blend of joy and melancholy; joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at the awareness of how seldom we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind. The flawless object throws into perspective the mediocrity that surrounds it. We are reminded of the way we would wish things always to be and of how incomplete our lives remain.”
I like this idea of sadness. The idea of a joy mixed with melancholy is illuminating, and it is where I see so many people living, and indeed where I am many days. And I wonder if it is where we will always be until Christ comes to set things right and make things the way they are supposed to be.
