Rediscoveries

Recently I was discussing with a friend the idea of emergence. He's a bio major, and in that context emergence is the creation of complex systems through relatively simple inputs. Forgive me if that's a terribly un-authentic description, but it really made me think about a theory on art that I developed in high school.

I had developed this idea about what art is, what music is. True art and music were when the sum of individual parts added up to something much greater. A true work of art was something that was more than the sum of pencil scratches on paper and a true piece of music was more than a collection of sounds. And it was, in turn, this greater sum -- these expressions of true beauty -- that were, to my mind, evidence of God. Evidence of the magic that sparkled, waiting to be reveal itself, under the surface of everything on earth.

It has been a long time since I have thought about that idea, mostly because I have spent the past few years with my nose buried in stacks of textbooks and very little of them experiencing the things that brought so much joy to my life when I was younger: art and music. But I find myself seeking out these experiences again, bit by bit. Expressions of beauty, in whatever shape they take, are essential to my life. Not only because of the joy that they bring me, but because they afford me a feeling of wonder towards life and all the possibilities that glimmer, just noticeable under the surface if you look carefully. And what could possibly be more essential to life than that sensation of wonder.