If you can only appreciate prettiness, you'll be unable to love a woman.
Previous video, "The Imperative of Beauty": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV4s5n5LiuQ
The documentary is titled "Why Beauty Matters" by Roger Scruton
C.S. Lewis' discussion of Storge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4hI638mskQ
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I Feel You by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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So this is part two in my response, my reaction to the documentary Why Beauty Matters by Roger Scruton.
And in this video, I'd like to talk about one form of beauty, one form of love, eros.
That without eros, without true eros, all we have left is lust.
And Eros is very, very lacking in this world.
A long time ago, probably 20 years ago, I ran into this article saying that couples were going to Italy, they were going to the Louvre to look at these Renaissance artworks, these religious artworks to reignite the flame in their marriage.
Now, these weren't erotic artworks that they were looking at.
These were spiritual pieces.
One of them, as I recall, was Mary being informed by the angel that she was going to be the mother of Christ.
These were non-erotic images.
And yet the expressions on those people's faces, on Mary's face in that sculpture, had a very erotic quality to it, an orgasmic quality to it.
Now, and I don't think noting this is at all vulgar.
Not in the least.
In fact, I don't think the news report I saw on it remotely did it justice.
It was, there's the truth, you know, shouting at you, and you can't hear it because somehow you got it into your head that because something is religious, it must not be sexy.
In my last video, my last video I noted, and by the way, I'm also stealing this from C.S. Lewis.
He talks about this in his book on pain.
I forget the specific title right now, but C.S. Lewis, The Meaning of Pain, something like that.
At one point he starts discussing, are there pains in heaven?
Is there pain in heaven?
And he starts reflecting on the fact that beauty is often very painful for us to look at.
But it's a wonderful pain.
And so surely that sort of pain is also present in heaven.
And then he reflects deeper, that there are so many of these feelings.
Terror, for instance.
Now, if you've ever been in a dangerous situation or you had an animal attack you, you know that visceral grip that, that cold bolt of ice on your gut that just strikes you.
In fact, it comes before knowledge.
You are scared of the animal before you're even fully cognizant of the fact that there's an animal, before you can process that there's an animal attacking you.
This, this instinctive emotional response comes immediately.
But then there are these religious emotions, and all these religious emotions seem to mimic these physical emotions.
There is something terrifying and comforting about being in the church.
You know, many philosophers have talked about the, the awe of nature of a hurricane, that it's not just that a hurricane is frightening, it is awe full, it inspires awe.
It is so much grander than us.
We apprehend it on this much, much greater level.
And so, so many of these spiritual feelings that we have, the terror of a ghost.
How strange is it?
How strange is it that people are terrified of of death, not terrified of dying, but terrified of the dead, terrified of ghosts, these immaterial beings which can't.
How can they hurt you there?
You know, being scared of a tiger makes sense.
Being scared of a ghost is kind of weird.
And it's a different form of fear that we feel for it.
And the love of God is...
It's for us to understand it, and it comes in multiple forms.
There is more than just one form of love.
And it is very, like, it's similar to the erotic bliss in the same way that apprehension of the magnitude of the universe and the magnitude of God is similar to being afraid of a tiger.
these medieval artworks would capture this.
Not that they were trying to depict anything tawdry, far from it.
They're trying to point towards the true emotion which we experience in a lesser form here on earth, particularly a lesser form if it's merely lust.
Now what's the difference between Lust and Eros?
Well I'd like to start with another C.S. Lewis lecture actually talking about storge, the love of the familiar, the familial love, the love you have for your dog and that your dog has for you.
And storge is one of the least selfish forms of love.
It's one of the least mercenary forms of love.
And you even continue to love your family even when you're angry at them.
You know, even with your dog, you love your dog even when you're angry at your dog.
And it's not a demanding love.
It's not a jealous love.
It's not a profitable love.
It's just this innate love.
And yet even it's not enough.
Not on its own.
Lewis goes on.
And I'll link to the video down below where he does that.
He goes on to describe how storge can become greedy, how it can become selfish.
How there will be the parent that ostensibly wants the betterment for their child, but they want their type of betterment.
They never choose to understand the child or figure out what the child actually needs.
They just want to put their standards on to the child.
There's the storge, which is upset if the child or the friend or the neighbor moves somewhere else or if they get married or if they start becoming quite serious about going to church.
And they're upset because this person they love, they feel like they're losing this person they love to the new experience.
So even storge, which is one of the least selfish forms of love, if it's not serving that higher love of God and goodness, is ultimately going to be a very destructive form of love as well.
And when it comes to erotic love, we are absolutely awash in lust these days, which only looks at the immediate.
It only looks at the mechanical, the, you know, what can I, the instrumental, what can I get out of this person?
What can this person do for me?
It's looking only at the surface.
It's not looking at the person throughout time.
It's not looking at the woman and seeing the mother and grandmother that she could be, or likewise looking at the man and seeing the father and grandfather that he could be.
It's only looking at the surface patina, the prettiness.
And now this prettiness is fine if that's where you start.
But it's not where you should be ending.
The same thing with art.
Prettiness, composition, color, all of this, these are good things, but they're a starting point.
True Eros, in particular, Eros that's ultimately pursuing the greatest goodness, Eros that's subservient to the greatest goodness, is going to be looking at the other person and seeing them throughout time,
but also seeing into their depths, seeing them as a person, as a complex human being, with these needs and aspirations and imperfections.
And the sad thing is that we have been so awash in prettiness.
We've been so awash in lust.
Even our romances, the romances we tell these days seldom stop, like they seldom go on past the marriage.
They end with the marriage.
It's the oeuvre.
It's the beginning of the symphony.
It's the introduction to the story, and the rest of the story is forgotten.
Appreciating a woman for the way she looks in her youthful splendor, the way she looks when she's dressed up, or appreciating a man for, you know, the image he presents.
the success, the confidence, and that alone is that's not beauty.
That's prettiness.
That's this shallowness.
And it's not enough for us.
We are meant for more than this.
We are meant for more than just cheap entertainment and expediency and instrumental manipulations.
There is this deeper beauty present in Eros.
And you can see that.
You can see that in great art.
Both the spiritual art, which points towards why, why this thing exists, this feeling of romance.
It's not just something for silly teenagers.
That there's a grander romance out there.
And you can't really understand it until you've progressed through the heady delirium of youthful infatuation.
But there's this higher form out there.
And when we don't have art in our lives, when we don't have beauty in our lives, we have no knowledge, no idea that this thing exists out there, that there is this grander destination.
And so when all we value is prettiness, we have people constantly trying to relive their teenage years, as opposed to growing and finding these more profound truths and beauties and erotic forms of love that are underlying, that are possible through, after getting through the initial forms.
So folks, don't limit yourself to the world of the pretty.
Find the world of the truly erotic.
Not the cheap erotic of Friday Night with a Stranger, but the grand erotic of where it's mixed in with Storgay and Philias and Agape, all of them at once.
Find that form of love and surround yourself with beauty to remind yourself that even though you are going through times of loneliness, of you're walking through the wasteland, that this does exist.
It's not just pie in the sky.
It's not just a mirage.
It is out there.
And keep your eyes on that destination.
Don't get distracted while you're on the journey.
Folks, thanks for watching.
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