Blog #14

I agree with Armstrong’s quote “To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience” I think that if people worry too much, about their social status or the things they have, they miss out on the true beauty that the world has to offer. Beauty is a lot more than material things, it can be found in even the simplest things in life. Like Maeghan said in my podcast, there is beauty all around us, and it is often missed when we are just day to day trying to accomplish the goals at hand. Schiller says ” … to regard beauty as a luxury adornment or social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience, because for him the point of beauty is to elevate the soul.”  In my community of ice hockey, most of the people that play the sport have a decent amount of money, and as a younger player, I always thought that I had to have the top of the line equipment, in order to be accepted on my team. As I grew up I realized that was not the case, it did not matter what equipment you owned, if you worked hard and showed your skill, you were accepted. I realized that me and my teammates found beauty in the plays that were made on the ice, the crisp passes, give and go’s, the beautiful shots or saves. An example that comes to mind when I think of beauty in my community was when my team was in states, it was the 9th overtime, the face-off was in our zone, and my goalie looked at me and said please end the game now. The face-off was one to our defender, who passed it to the winger, and she one touched it to the  center, who one touched it to me. I took the puck and entered the offensive zone and fired the puck on net, hoping to end the game. Many years have gone by since that game, but every time my teammates and I talk about it, we discuss the beauty of the tape to tape passes and the text book play that won states, it could not have been more beautiful. We found beauty in the happiness, the exhaustion, and the sense of pride that we all shared when we finally beat a team that had beat us 9-1 in the games leading up to states.