TRISTAN SHERWIN

Something I shared via social media two years ago today, offered up with continued thanks to those who have committed to beauty in the face of ugly:

“Terrorism wants us to believe that the world is ugly, and seeks to change it through ugly means. But this just produces more ugliness and hate.

And when we let the ugliness of this ugly view creep into us, when all we see is the ugliness these painters of ugly desecrate our world with, it’s easy to believe the ugly lies they spread and reciprocate this ugliness back; playing the game using their ugly rules.

But I’m one of many who dares to believe that the world is beautiful. Not all is ugly. And I’m one of many who will not embrace and reflect the ugly these ugly people seek to stain and infect our world with.

I believe that beauty trumps ugly.

That beauty heals ugly.

That beauty done in love purges the world of the hate-filled ugly that a few people seek to taint it with.

So I’ll commit to doing the beautiful things, and fly in the face of the ugly.

Why? Because like Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, I believe that beauty saves the world.

Thank you to all those who experienced the grotesque last night and this morning and who committed to acts of beauty in the midst brutality.”