Confucius say...

I confess, I like for things to be tidy with neat ends. Rarely can I make, beg or coerce people or places, myself included, to be neat and perfect. I have accepted the fact that life is terribly messy and, as science confirms, everything flows from order to chaos but most days I have a hard time living it. I came across a Confucius quote the other day that said:

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."

And I got to thinking about the truth that there is a form of beauty in the chaos and disarray in life. I have passed this pretty Chinese park on island a million times, and yesterday the big statue of Confucius caught my eye. I followed a split second decision to stop. Now, I was busy and had errands to run and this particular park is next to impossible to get out of because of the blind curve in the road and the relentless traffic. But, suddenly it became important in my mind to stop at this park.

Confucius's, or Kong Qiu, father died when he was three, and he lived with his mother in poverty until she died of illness and overwork when Confucius was 17. From that chaos of his early beginning, Confucius went on to spend his life promoting a great, harmonious and humanistic society willing to live by the golden rule "Do unto others..." or in his words: "Never impose on others what you would not chose for yourself."

As I walked into the park, I thought about his quote, "everything has beauty,"
and I thought, 'anyone could see that this park has beauty, order and symmetry.'

Anyone could see that at first glance. You didn't have to dig deep to find it.

So, I sat on the bench and specifically looked around for something not pretty. As humans, we are good at finding things that are out of synch and not perfect. A moments glance revealed graffiti, overgrown grass and disrepair, like the horn missing on the carabao,

over abundant power wires, faded paint, mildew on the sidewalk,

and jungle overtaking the path. These are the things that people see when they come to Guam. For this reason, many people from the States hate it here.

Then I took the line from Confucius "not everyone sees [beauty]" and tried to look around to find the beauty in rough or unrecognizable form-- basically everything that is not neat and tidy. And after a while, like those fuzzy pictures that you stare at long enough, beautiful things came into focus from the third eye, the underused part of the brain. I could see the oval globes of the lamp post in the fence design.

I could see repeating rectangular patterns that pleased the eye.

I could see the ocean kiss the sky above the overgrowth.

I could see in focus a small glimpse of what Confucius was saying. Beauty is not in the apparent, tidy and perfect...

But in accepting that which is (mess, yuck and all) and looking bigger.

Like all eye opening experiences, it is the practical application that counts.... the hardest part for me. This will always be the ongoing quest for life.... seeing beauty in mountains of sweat soaked laundry, sagging age-spotted skin, bad grades, dented fenders, cockroaches on clean linen. Once I get that mastered, I will work on another Confucianism "And remember, no matter where you go, there you are."