TITLE: Cultivating a Way of Seeing
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: April 26, 2023 12:15 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
 Sometimes, I run across a sentence I wish I had written.  Here
 are several paragraphs by
<a href="https://twitter.com/danbouk">
   Dan Bouk</a>
 I would be proud to have written.

<blockquote><em>
 Museums offer a place to practice looking for and acknowledging
 beauty.  This is, mostly, why I visit them.
 <br/><br/>
 As I wander from room to room, a pose diverts me, a glance
 attracts me, or a flash of color draws my eye.  And then I look,
 and look, and look, and then move on.
 <br/><br/>
 Outside the museum, I find that this training sticks.  I wander
 from subway car to platform, from park to city street, and a
 pose diverts me, a glance attracts me, or a flash of color
 draws my eye.  People of no particular beauty reveal themselves
 to be beautiful.  It feels as though I never left the museum,
 and now everything, all around me, is art.
 <br/><br/>
 This way of seeing persists, sometimes for days on end.  It
 resonates with and reinforces my political commitment to the
 equal value of each of my neighbors.  It vibrates with my
 belief in the divine spark, the image of God, that animates
 every person.
</em></blockquote>

-- Dan Bouk, in
<a href="https://buttondown.email/danbouk/archive/on-walking-to-the-museum-musing-on-beauty-and/">
   On Walking to the Museum, Musing on Beauty and Safety</a>
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