Renaissance

Is a little chaos actually good for us?

In reading the poetry, philosophy, and history of the world, and comparing it to the nature of our modern time, I find it entirely understandable how depression rates have become so high, and how everything has become so dull and void of joy.

We need a new Renaissance.

Modern homes are boring. Modern businesses, also boring. Modern art is boring. Modern, in and of itself, has become a byword for.. boring.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to remain so tragic and loathsome.

Hence the need for renaissance.

We need sculpture to come to life again. We need leather bound books that are unique, and custom, and not mass marketed paperbacks. We need quality to rise to the surface with beauty by her side.

Especially in America. This “greatest nation is essentially devoid of great monuments, stunning masterworks. Even the best of our works pale in comparison to the Vatican, to the cathedrals.

Japan and China both have brilliant castles and palaces that inspire a great deal of awe and pride. England has castles and Italy has Venice. The Middle East has great mosques, and even their more modern architectural achievements are stunning.

Compare this to the bland landscapes of America. The dismal, corporate boxes that fill our empty spaces, and the blistering, rampant parking lots. I see no beautiful spires. I see hollow mockery of a time gone by, a facade pretending to be something that we all secretly long for.

And it decays as quickly as it was built. A place is torn down, only for a newer, shinier, and more worthless thing to be built in its place.

If the cover of the building has become hollow, the cover of a book is more so. Gone is the appreciation of art and beauty and poetry in these things. I thought myself a literate man, at one time. And yet, in reading the works of the old ancients, I discover constantly new words and new meanings, hidden depths and forgotten memories.

Must knowledge be bought so dearly for us to appreciate it once more? Must beauty be sold at a price so high for us to admire it? For what good was freedom granted to a nation, if not to proliferate the great arts?

Real craftsmanship, built to last a thousand years or more. Real architecture. Paintings to inspire. Real things worth building and preserving. Things a man or woman can help build and say “I was a part of something bigger than me, and there it is.”

We need a new Renaissance, or we’ll have a new dark age.

Make beautiful things.

Don’t settle for cheap imitation.