Finding beauty in the mundane


I've had a fascination with the mundale all of my life. We all start out life that way, endlessly fascinated by the most ordinary things, staring with wonder with our little mouths gaping in amazement at the stuff that grownups have long since learned to ignore. For most people, a fascination with the mundane ends once they're no longer a toddler, and it's a good thing, too, as the world really wouldn't work very well if your average dentist just lost all concentration and became fascinated by the uneven (or even) patterns of your teeth, or the interesting colors they might see. They have to focus on what's important, which they see every day, and which becomes mundane.

For me, I've been able to cover up my fascination with the mundane by doing things like drawing, and nowadays writing in this blog. I like to talk largely of small things and smally of large things. If you understand, you're weird, like me. Most people just smile uncomfortably, and edge away. What in the world is Brad looking at?

And so, today I'd like to break a fundamental rule that I've always followed as a teacher, which is to show people where to look, not what to see. In other words, if you're wondering "So, just what am I looking at here?", I'm going to talk about it. Maybe it will help you to see the beauty in the mundane, and maybe it will just give you comfort that you're not the only one who does that. Walk with me.

At the risk of making it all sound more complicated than it really is, I'll use a couple of terms that I often think of: the Micro World and the Macro World. And these two worlds tend to be so unimportant to daily life that they just become virtually invisible - they don't matter because they're either too small (Micro) or too big (Macro). And what that means is that normal people will see the Middle World. If you point to a tiny flower by the side of a road, they'll wonder where the road goes to, or if you point to patterns of clouds they'll see a billboard, or telephone wires.

People like me tend to become exhausted, and overwhelmed by everything. In addition to lights, colors, and shadows, there's sound, and smell, and feel. I'll often say, "There's so much to see!", but I'm taking it in through all of my senses.

I'm not an historian, and I like to draw, but I never got very good at it. And these things are really just "cover stories" for the grownups, who may never see the beauty in the mundane that you and I can see.

Thank you for walking with me.
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