Waxing Philosophic On the Autumn Aesthetic

Take a moment to fully absorb this transcendent beauty:

(Photo from: OCRegister.com)

Though my blog mostly covers beauty as applied to cosmetics and personal upkeep, beauty is beauty. At the top I list as one of the topics applied here as 'aesthetics' which is defined as "the study of the mind and emotions in relations to the sense of beauty". This season is the best time to wax philosophic on Nature's beauty.

Also, because I'm a huge sci-fi geek, I'm tying in an esoteric philosophy from Battlestar Galactica. Don't go yet! This will make sense! But if you're not into philosophy read no further. I'll see you next post.

Keep in mind that this:

(Photo: USA-fallfoliage.com)

...is a picture of death, of dying. That which we are most afraid. Nature shows us a morbid beauty in dying. The Cylon character Leoben states in an episode to another character, Kara, who is soon to die and just witnessed her own mother's death and is positively afraid to die, "See? There's nothing so terrible about death. When you finally face it, it's beautiful." After this Kara accepts her reality of impending death.

Once I came to revere and respect Nature, pagan that I am, I found that Nature Herself, specifically the Autumn aspect, teaches us a profound lesson: death need not be ugly and dreadful. Not that any of us should go running to the grave prematurely, that's just a waste of life. But I think we should all strive, to the very best of our ability, to leave this life with beauty and grace.

(Photo: Vtweb.com.)

Fall is the season of decay. Winter is the actual dead season, Autumn is its funeral processional. That space between life (spring/summer) and death (winter) and it is indeed beautiful. How many people travel to the northern reaches of their (northern hemisphere) country to see leaves essentially dying a beautiful death, yet how few travel to see those very leaves born again five months later?

Finally, yet another Galactica tie-in is a philosophy espoused by the Cylon D'Anna Biers (portrayed by the awesome Lucy Lawless). Her species, you see, can die and be reborn an infinite number of times. D'Anna has remembered what she has seen in between lives. I want to end this post with something she told one of her brethren, "This is something beautiful...in that space between life and death."

(Photo: Northcoastcafe.typepad.com.)