At 60 and after the death of my wife, my daytime and dreamtime is peopled with those who ride my transit bus.  Mostly poor and straggling, they are glad to see me.  I like that.  Some call me Frank, others Mr. Sloan.  I see Mrs. Gaines waiting up ahead and know that means a struggle to get her into my bus. She’s cheerful though and that makes up for the loss of time. Riders depend on my schedule, you see, and I try not to disappoint them.

Birds on limb singing

Seasons they do come and go

Moonlight sonata

WHERE DOES BEAUTY COME FROM?

From evolution, where else?  How do  beauty/culture/evolution interact?  With botox, puffed up lips, wrinkle-remover.  How many “Sexiest Man Alive” magazine covers have I seen?  Sex, and it is not missing in the wild, with colorful baboon bottoms and robins’ breasts, enticing.  We may find a white peacock lovely, ignorant of the sexual function of animal attraction.

The earliest hint I can find of the experience of beauty  is the appearance of attraction to babies with “cute faces,” which had already appeared on earth at least by the time of the dinosaurs.  Evolution’s goal in that case is so parents wouldn’t eat their offspring. Good thinking!

Some people can appreciate beauty in art, music, poetry, dance and nature.  To me it feels like there’s a little-used nerve inside that turns on and flows warmly in my chest area. It seems to feed me.  But I can’t attend to beauty when I’m cold.

E.O. Wilson speaks of the creative arts being the “true and beautiful.” Is there a connection?

bird on the canvas

the serenade of bird song

Mother’s loving  smile