A Reflection on Beauty

How do those devoid of creativity show what they see and feel?

A Reflection on Beauty

 

What makes you think you’ll be more than just another drop in the ocean?

 

The tears fell from her cheeks to splash the page. She’d tried, she’d really tried, but it just wasn’t working. She couldn’t make the life that flowed through her each day spill onto the foolscap and arrange itself into something beautiful. She thought she was a vessel for something magical, but it turned out she was just a drainpipe.

She watched each day as the beauty of the world went unnoticed, un-captured, and it made her ache with longing to show the blind passerby’s what they were missing with each blink of their blank eye.

How could no else see it? The light dappling across her cold wooden floors alone were enough to make her scream in desperation for the ability to paint. To find some window through which others could look and see what she saw. Revel in its magnificence as she did every day.

But it was no use. She had nothing. No talent, no creativity. Just her eyes, wide open to what everyone else refused to see, or perhaps never even knew was there.

She threw the writing into the corner to join the other failures of streaky paint and cracked film.

This would not do! But she’d tried everything. What other medium was there?

She could not express in words. She could not imitate in paint. She could not capture through camera. And the motion of film just detracted from her focus. What else was there?

Elise buried her head in her hands and screamed.

“For gods sake keep it down! Anyone would think you were being murdered!” her mother snapped from down the hall.

Elise threw her head back to yell a retort but was stopped by the inkling of an idea.

Sound. She hadn’t tried sound.

She pulled out a new scrap of paper and began to scribble notes.

If a mere scream could draw attention to a person, and create the illusion of a murder, then a more refined one could draw attention to an object and perhaps even destroy any previous illusion held.

It was ridiculous, but with some work it could become something substantial. There was hope yet.

Elise set to work.

 

“Excuse me.” Elise wavered. No one noticed. She coughed and tried again, a little louder. “Excuse me.”

A woman glanced at her briefly before hurrying on her way.

A small success.

“Excuse me!” she sang out up the octave.

Heads turned towards her and flicked back instantly, avoiding eye contact with the odd child standing at the edge of the sidewalk in the middle of peak hour foot traffic.

“You there!” she cried and pointed a brazen finger at a man in a grey suit.

“No change.” He mumbled and kept walking.

“Yes change!” she shouted and darted after him. “Not from your pocket but from your mind! Watch the light!”

The man glanced at the green light and kept walking, his brow crinkled in puzzlement.

It was working.

“Watch the light!” she cried again. More people glanced up, uncertain. It was definitely green. They definitely had right of way. They kept walking.

“You’re watching the wrong light!” she said gleefully.

A boy being led by his mother stared at the dull black spheres where the red light was currently missing.

“Watch the light!” she sang. A few more heads lifted just in time to see the red light blossom from the inside out. People stopped walking and waiting, shifting uncomfortably from their proximity to the clearly unstable girl.

“Did you see?” she said excitedly to the little boy.

He blinked at her. “It was shiny black and then went red.” He said slowly.

“Yes, but it did more than that! Did you see inside the shine? You could see the whole street!”

A few curious eyes were nonchalantly swiveling up to look at the dulled green light now.

“And the red! Did you see how it blossomed? Each little light flicks on from the inside out! So many little lights to make one big one! Everyone thinks it just comes on at once but it doesn’t! It spreads out like, like a wave!” she threw her arms out in a circle. The boy watched her, entranced by the oddly enthusiastic girl. His mother pulled him away from her slightly.

“You can’t see it, can you?” Elise accused the mother.

She looked at her, blue eyes dull and trembling with thousand tasks to remember.

“All you have to do is look. One you see it you can’t un-see it. It’s incredible.” Elise practically whispered to avoid sending the woman of the edge of the breakdown she appeared to be skirting.

The woman blinked. “I would like it if you left me alone now please.”

“I will, but only if you look at the light. Quickly, it’s about to change.”

The woman glanced at it despite herself. The light turned green. She squinted, unsure of what she’d seen.

“Has it always done that?” she asked carefully.

“Always. Beautiful, isn’t it? Like when wind blows over a garden of flowers, but moving out in a circle.”

The woman was already crossing, her little boy in tow. “They should get that fixed.” She was muttering.

“You’ve seen it! You can’t un-see it!” Elise called after her.

“Excuse me miss.” She turned to face two police officers. We’re going to have to ask you to stop harassing the pedestrians, unless you have a busking permit.”

“I’m not busking.”

“Then we’ll have to ask you politely to stop it. You’re upsetting people.”

“But I’m just trying to help.”

“Now see, the funny thing is, people don’t want help unless they ask for it. And the more you try to help them the more they don’t take it.” The older policewoman said sensibly. “So if I were you I’d stop while you’re ahead.”

“Come back when you have a busking permit.” The younger male policeman added. “I’m sure you’ll be great at drawing crowds.”

Elise looked down at her feet, upset. “But I can’t draw. That’s the whole problem. Everyone keeps missing how beautiful the world is and I can’t show them any other way!”

The policewoman knelt down. “Here now, why does everyone need to know?”

Elise swallowed. “Because it’s just so beautiful.”

The woman cocked her head to the side. “Have you thought that maybe the reason it looks so beautiful is because so few can see it?”

She blinked, stunned.

“The greatest beauty is the one only you can see. And the reason you can see it all” she tapped her chest “is because you’re looking with your heart.” She smiled. “No one will ever see the same way you do. It’s a fact of life. You’re just lucky to be gifted with such love that is shines through everything.”

Elise felt her jaw hanging open.

“So no one will ever be able to see what I can?”

The woman shook her head. “No. And that’s what makes it beautiful. But what you see will be reflected back into your eyes and your smile. It’s not as strong, but everyone will be able to see the reflection of the beauty you see each day. And that’s something, isn’t it?”

Elise smiled. “That’s better than something. That’s everything I wanted all along!”

 

Elise never did find a gift through which to show the world, but for each day she met with shining eyes, people glimpsed the beauty of a world they never noticed, and in turn the world was a little more beautiful for her generous smile.

 

A drop in the ocean you may be, but without each drop there would be no sea.

Reviews

[The Nude Writer]

This story really grabbed me. There was so much I could relate to :)