Beauty for no reason.
Today, I am thankful for the human impulse to create beauty even when it serves no other purpose but itself.
We seem to have drifted from that impulse as we become more enamored of efficiency and utilitarianism, but once upon a time—and I think it still lurks within us—we took the time to make even the most useful things beautiful.
As testimony to this impulse, I bring you:
This website is a gallery of old French manhole covers.
What could possibly be more functional than the cover to the access point to the sewers?
And yet, craftsmen designed and metalworkers created works of art—to lay down in the street and be trodden on.
Nowadays, here in the United States, our manhole covers are relatively plain. A manufacturer’s name stamped into the metal, perhaps a numeric code allowing workers to identify the location.
Less expensive, I’m sure. Functional. Doing what it needs to do and no more.
(Trivia question: Do you know why manhole covers are round? It makes it impossible for them to fall through the hole.)
So, we gain speed on the assembly line and we lose a bit of beauty out of the world.
The impulse is still there, though. Watch any of the decorating programs on HGTV. If you ever get the chance, take a look at the main building of the Jacksonville Public Library. There are people who still believe in beautifying the utilitarian and manage to buck the system and carve out enough time and money to do so.
And today, I am thankful for them—and wishing for a more developed sense of visual creativity so that I could be like them.
