Believing in our beauty
I will fight to give you my attention. I will fight to see you as a beautiful being that deserves my attention. I believe in your beauty.
Inspired by a conversation on the greek ancient philosopher Plotin on a calm afternoon in a dorm in Roskilde.
I will fight to give you my attention. I will fight to see you as a beautiful being that deserves my attention. I believe in your beauty. I believe in the beauty of the naked white walls next to my desk. I believe in the beauty of the wild meadows outside my window, the beauty of the streets that people build, the beauty of the factories that produce the things that surround us. I will fight to give you my attention and when I am not able to give it to you, I’m aware of it. Hoping that someone else will meet you with curious eyes, loving you in this moment maybe even without realizing it because you both just met. While I’m tending to myself. As it is the foundation for me giving you my attention, that there is a me. A me that wants to seek you and will take on the search as soon as it has grown again. I will fight to see you as a beautiful being. I want to learn how to encounter you in a beautiful way, realizing that striving for my own beauty means the striving for the ability to encounter you in a beautiful way. Because I’m beautiful in the moments where I interact with my environment, with others, with you in a beautiful way. I need you, not you “you” but you as the other. The other that is present with me in a moment worth to have my attention even if it’s just for a second because I’m already drawn away by someone else. I will fight to give you my attention, to open the door for the beautiful encounter where love exists. The love that says “You shall be” and therefore “I shall be”. The love that says “I see you” and therefore “I am seen”. The love that says “We shall be”. Not forever, but in this moment. “We are here, and it is good”. To strife for my beauty means to strife for our beauty.
Jannik Howind, Roskilde September 2022