評論
打印
Anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower. You need train however, to perceive the beauty in mathematics or physics or chess, in the architecture of a tree, the design of a bird's wing, or the shiver of breath through a flute. For most of human history, the training has come from elders who taught the young how to pay attention. By paying attention, we learn to savor all sorts of patterns, from quantum mechanics to patchwork quilts.
任何有視覺的人都會在看到一張面孔或一朵花時感受到喜悅。然而，一個人必須有一定的素養，才能體味數學、物理和對弈的美，才能領略大樹結構的美、小鳥羽翼圖案的美、吹笛子時呼吸顫動的美。人類歷史上，年輕人常常從上輩人那里學會專注的素養。只有專注，我們才會充分欣賞從量子作用到床罩拼圖花案各式各樣的美麗。
This predilection brings with it clear evolutionary advantage, for the ability to recognize patterns helped our ancestors to select mates, find food, avoid predators. But the same advantage would apply to all species, and yet we alone compose symphonies and crossword puzzles, carve stone into statues, map time and space. Have we merely carried our animal need for shrewd perceptions to an absurd extreme? Or have we stumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds and the structure of the universe?
這種專注帶有明顯的進化優勢。因為，識別不同的形態，幫助了我們的祖先選擇伴侶、尋找食物和躲避食肉獸。所有的物種都有同樣的進化優勢。然而，唯獨人類能夠作曲、玩字謎游戲、用石頭雕刻塑像、測繪時間空間地圖。是我們將進化所需的精明觀察發展到了極端，還是我們不經意間取得了宇宙運行和我們的大腦思維間的高度一致？
I am persuaded the latter is true. I am convinced there's more to beauty than biology, more than cultural convention. It flows around and through us in such abundance, and in such myriad forms, as to exceed by a wide margin any mere evolutionary need. This is not to say that beauty has nothing to do with survival: I think it has everything to do with survival. Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us. It reminds us of the shaping power that reaches through the flower stem and through our own hands. It restores our faith in the generosity of nature. By giving us a taste of the kinship between our own small minds and the great Mind of the Cosmos, beauty reassures us that we are exactly and wonderfully made for life on this glorious planet, in this magnificant universe. I find in that affinity a profound source of meaning hope. A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation.
我相信后者是真的。我堅信，美不僅僅是生物因素，也越文化傳統。美四處逸散，涌流于我們之中，形式紛繁，遠遠超過進化所需。這并不是說美同生存沒有關系，相反，它同生存密切相關。美與我們同源并滋養著我們。美令我們想起花的枝干使枝葉繁茂的塑造力和我們雙手的塑造力。美使我們再次相信大自然的慷慨。美在我們的小智慧和宇宙的大智慧間建立了一種親密感，從而使我們確信，人類就是為了在這宏偉的地球上和神奇的宇宙中精彩生活而生。我在這種親密中找到了生命的意義和希望的無窮源泉。宇宙中，美無處不在，也許的確需要我們的關注和回應，需要我們敏銳的雙眼、充盈的內心和智慧的大腦來接近這創世的圓環。
