So Beautiful it is Obscene

Ever see something so beautiful but you know it is quite obscene? I was fortunate enough to go for a trip to Montreal, a beautiful city. My wife, Suz, took me there, it was around 1998. We did a few tourist things, like go on one of those crazy boat rides, the one which does 360's at high speed. I think we have a photo somewhere. We walked around old Montreal and the docks. I remember a man who was painted up silver like a statue which was pretty cool.  One of the memories we made was at the Notre-Dame Basilica.  My Mom was a Catholic so it was good to go to the Church and then tell her about it. The Church does not disappoint. The interior of the Church is just magnificent, with incredible wood work, exterior work, art work, and stained glass windows. The disappointment we have is that we never had the chance to take my deceased Mom there. I think she would have appreciated the beauty in the Church. 

For me the Norte Dame Church was so incredible in all its splendor that it is absolutely obscene. There is no spirituality to it but rather opulence, just pure riches. It is no doubt beautiful, still it reeks of a rotten stench. The stench comes from its theft, its brutality, it's destruction the world over. The great beauty cannot hide the wretchedness within the foundation of its life.  "Once, when criticising the Vatican's wealth, Pope John Paul I confessed that his toilet flush handle was made of solid gold and studded with diamonds. You get the image; the beauty we see in gold and the obscenity of it as a toilet handle where you flush shit down to disappear?

We see the beauty and obscenity in both people and objects (perhaps even words). I think of the beauty of Mrs. Trump and the daughter Trump. No one can really say they are not beautiful (of course tastes differ and are subjective) but they are also hideous. How can anyone say they are not?  They have physical attributes which make them attractive but there is also much to them which many see as monstrous. The prostitution of integrity for riches and power. There are many individuals we can see as beautiful and obscene. 

There are of course things which should be beautiful and obscene but turns out they are nothing but gaudy. The art piece title America is an example of gaudy as opposed to beauty. The 18 karat golden toilet is a good example of missing the mark of beauty and just showing gaudy. It is gaudy but it was designed to be and the message is it is also obscene.   

Leon Neil/Getty Images

America was viewed as the "land of opportunity" at one time but now it is viewed as the land of the obscene, the selfish, the damned. The United States was seen as a democratic country where the people have the voice over affairs; a beautiful idea. What was once thought to be beautiful is now known to be ugly; the voices are being silenced and it is obscene. The powerful establishment of the power hungry and the rich have almost ruined United States democracy. 

We can view talent as beautiful. Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro in 1978 The Deer Hunter movie are just incredible. Other actors, producers, directors have made incredible, beautiful works as well. The beauty of these works is ruined by the obscenity of their other actions. Mel Gibson, John Wayne, Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen are but a few of the ugly where we once associated as beautiful talents. We see them as they truly are: repugnant, repulsive, ugly and disgusting. The beautiful is actually obscene. Still many refuse to see the obscene and continue to view them as beautiful. 

It is weird how we view beauty; a building, an art piece, an animal, a mountain, a piece of jewelry, a person, a child, a piece of furniture, a vehicle, and so on. The truly beautiful is being missed. It is being missed because the obscene has become the image of beauty. There are some amazing beautiful people who are active in keeping things beautiful. Autumn Peltier is an example of beauty. She is beautiful for the work she does and the message she carries. She is a Water Carrier. 

Autumn Peltier Photo by Linda Roy 

 We still want to look at a river or a lake and see the beauty but we take it for granted. We pollute the rivers, the waterways, and make it not good to wade in it, to swim in it and to drink it. We poison it with mercury and flush shit down into from our golden toilets with our solid gold and diamond handles. We turn something so beautiful it becomes obscene. Indigenous communities the world over cannot drink the water anymore. It is the obscenity of the rich which is ruining the beautiful. We view a stack of money as beautiful. We want to load up our bath tub with money and wash our bodies with the money. We don't see the money as what it is; dirty, filthy and the spreading of germs. We see money as so beautiful we kiss it before we shove it into the slot machine at the gambling establishments. We don't even realize my cousin just took a big shit and didn't wash his hands. He used those shit stained hands to handle his money and hand it over to another place of business. The money traveled around being handled by many shit stained, flu, and cold infected hands, where it has finally come into your hands. You love money so much you kiss it, not even seeing the crud, the dirt, the germs on the dollar bill. Mean while, there are folks who are actively spending this loved money to destroy the water ways, the marshes, the mountains and why? To have more shit stained obscene money in their hands. 

"The COVID-19 crisis, as we well know, has exacerbated inequalities that already existed. The world's richest people offer the starkest example. An October Report found that in the 500 wealthiest people had gained $813 billion collectively so far in 2020. On his own, the world's richest person...has accrued $70,5 billion in new wealth this year. Many constituents of the 99%, meanwhile, lost their jobs, lost their homes, and joined food lines." 

I came up this post because of a video images  I have seen over the past few months and over the years.  There are images of Children coming out of Yemen. Beautiful children, but in horrible circumstances. I cannot imagine the pain of the people, the Mothers, the Fathers of the Children of Yemen. You can only look at what should be beautiful and see the obscenity of it. The image of a child of only skin and bone becomes obscene.

Al-Sabeen hospital in Sana, Yemen,

We look away because the beauty is all but gone and we can't bear to look. So beautiful yet it has become obscene and why? Power, greed and human obscenity makes this happen. 

We see things which are so beautiful and they should be so beautiful but are obscene. It fucking hurts.