Aesthetics: An ordered, well-organized, disciplined life

by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

As I was sitting having breakfast before dawn one morning (on many mornings!), I enjoyed subdued lighting, gentle, comforting music, and a clean, neat relaxing dining room ambiance.  Suddenly, as I enjoyed this incredibly satisfying environment, I realized that it was aesthetics — characterized by an appreciation of beauty or good taste — that was engaging my senses and providing the balance that an ordered, well-organized, disciplined life can bring.

At the very top of Abraham Maslow’s original five-stage model of his Hierarchy of Needs (1943-1954) was self-actualization.  Below that was esteem, preceded by love/belonging, safety, and physiological needs.  Never, in his models did the term aesthetics appear.  (N.B. “Although Maslow referred to additional aspects of motivation, 'Cognitive' and 'Aesthetic,' he did not include them as levels or stages within his own expression of the Hierarchy of Needs.” —Source: Chapman, Allen. (n.d.). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Businessballs.com Retrieved January 30, 2011.
    
In my ordering of needs I would place aesthetic needs at the pinnacle on Maslow’s Hierarchy — above self-actualization needs.  For the most part, it is only after physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs are fulfilled (whether on purpose or by accident) that people can turn their attention to aesthetic needs — a search for beauty symmetry and closure.  I would suggest that most people do not reach this stage; however, I’m certain that those who do attain this (as I believe I have, not to be immodest), they are likely to find it desirable, pleasing, and satisfying.  My opening paragraph of this essay demonstrates why, but let me offer several other examples to make my point.
    
Often, I think it takes a meta-perspective to realize or observe aesthetics in our lives.  That is, we must stand outside ourselves as objective observers of our own life to actually see and appreciate it.  That is because so often we take it for granted, fail to notice or observe it, or simply disregard it as unimportant.  Indifference is, of course, likely if you consider that most of our life has been consumed (to the degree that it has) with the lower needs on Maslow’s Hierarchy.  It is possible that those who have not struggled as much are likely to be in the best position to appreciate aesthetics when that time comes in our lives.
    
Let me give some examples of where (not how) aesthetics can show up in our lives.  
    
As a preface to what I am going to write here, I have to admit one caveat.  I am a perfectionist, and there are many times when I regret it (especially when it costs me extra time to achieve the level of perfection I demand of myself!), but the difference between aesthetics and perfectionism is sometimes hard to discern.
    
I want order in my life, and when I see order, it is pleasing.  I was recently leafing through the pictures in the book, Ansel Adams at 100 (Linen Slipcase edition, August 2, 2001).  What I noticed in Adams’ pictures was the balance, perspective, and detail.  He had the ability to frame a picture to bring out features not seen by the untrained eye.  This is what pleased my aesthetic sense.
    
I am fulfilled in the same manner when I listen to great music.  Often, when I eat I have music playing in the background.  It doesn’t have to be Mozart, Bach, or Beethoven.  I find delightful and satisfying artistry in van Cliburn’s piano playing, Enya’s vocal recordings, and even in the works of James Galway and George Winston.  I don’t have to be a critic, offer in-depth analysis, or even understand all of the nuances and intricacies of the music (or artwork, as the case may be) to appreciate it.  I like it because it pleases my senses and, thus, my aesthetic needs.
    
When I read a good book, I get a rich sense of aesthetics.  When an author can put words to ideas and construct an outstanding, well-supported narrative, for me there can be no better aesthetic.  It is precisely these books that win my approval.  It is why, too, that I read so widely (non-fiction only), but it is a continuous search for aesthetic satisfaction.  (I post my book reviews every Monday on my blog, and there are more than 100 of my reviews posted at Amazon.com.)
    
Nature, just as you might think, offers so many opportunities to appease my aesthetic needs.  I have traveled around the world and, honestly, the possibilities for aesthetic satisfaction are endless.  We went on a waterfall tour in upstate Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan one year, and the variety of waterfalls we saw was staggering — all different sizes and shapes, with quantities of water that varied from dribbles to gushers, and at surroundings that varied from rural and secluded (where we had to hike into a forest to find the falls) to urban (where the falls were located within a city and surrounded by buildings, bridges, or other structures.
    
We have walked in forests, jungles, and through wetlands. We have been in banana plantations, nutmeg-tree plots, and taro fields.  We have visited botanical gardens in Hawaii, on some Caribbean islands, and in Ann Arbor and Toledo.  The views have been astounding, the sights staggering, and the variety remarkable.
    
When we were in Shanghai where the shapes and colors of the buildings were unique, just as the architecture in Columbus, Indiana, catches the eye.  Despite the filth and pollution in downtown Saigon (Ho Chi Ming City), the spaghetti snarls of the overhead electrical lines dazzled the imagination.  And, in great contrast to Saigon, the cleanliness and size of he buildings in downtown Singapore is astonishing.
    
One web site that discussed graphic design briefly mentioned aesthetics: “People consider aesthetics as a basic need. They like to work in environments that meet at least basic aesthetic requirements. They dislike ugly environments. As a result, they are more motivated and perform better if their aesthetic needs are met.”
    
I totally agree with this comment, however, I have also discovered that there is surprising beauty in everything with which we have contact.  It may need us to look more closely; it may need us to draw back to see the greater picture.  Once we have satisfied the lower-order needs on Maslow’s Hierarchy, the likelihood that we can see and appreciate the aesthetics in everything we encounter becomes more likely.  And when we get to that point, we get closer to achieving the balance that an ordered, well-organized, disciplined life can bring.
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At wikiHow, the essay there by Rob S, Ben Rubenstein, and Sondra C, “How to Appreciate Modern American Architecture,” offers instructions that could apply to anything we encounter in life.

In an essay at the eHow web site, “What is aesthetic impotence?” Fraser Sherman writes that Fredrich von Schiller, the aesthetic philosopher, said (and he paraphrases him): “He believed that the growth of our capacity to appreciate beauty was linked with the growth of our dignity and freedom as human beings.”  Sherman’s essay supports the contention in my essay that we begin to appreciate beauty once we feel secure in the lower-order needs of Maslow’s Hierarchy.
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Copyright June, 2012, by And Then Some Publishing L.L.C.



 

Life is a game

by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

  
The first thing I think of when a game (any game) is mentioned, is “fun.”  Games are fun.  And to think that a game (any game) can be an accurate metaphor for life is mistaken.  There are times, it is true, when life is pure fun, but much of life is not — more of life is not fun.  It is serious business and not to take it seriously can sometimes be disastrous.   It was Thomas L. Holdcroft who said, “Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.”
    
At the Counseling Resource web site <>, Gordon Shippey has an essay titled “Life is Not a Game (But Maybe It Should Be),” in which he says: “My point is not to say that everything in life needs to be as fun and engaging as a game. Rather, that we have choices of how to structure our schools and our workplaces to make important work easier or harder. Remembering how important feedback is to the gaming experience, could we not make more regular feedback a part of our work and school life?  When we realize that high-risk situations work against creativity and challenging ourselves to go further, would it make sense to reevaluate the high-stakes testing in our schools?  Knowing that narrative flow fosters engagement, what are we to make of a disjointed school day or a job riddled with interruptions and requiring high levels of multi-tasking?  If being able to control the pace of an experience is important, why do we walk students lock-step through their lessons when self-paced alternatives like the Kahn Academy exist?  In the long run, harnessing the engaging properties of games may become a serious productivity driver.”
    
There is a book by Cherie Carter-Scott, If Life is a Game, These Are the Rules.  Blaine Greenfield, from Belle Mead, New Jersey, reviewed the book at Amazon, and since I have not read the book, I cite Greenfield’s distillation of Carter-Scott’s rules (condensed even further here): 1) You will receive a body.  You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth. 2) You will be presented with lessons.  You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "life."  Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.  3) There are no mistakes, only lessons.  Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.  4) A lesson is repeated until learned.
Lessons will repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.
    
There are five additional rules.  5)  Learning does not end.  There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.  6) "There" is no better than "here."  When you’re "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain a "there" that will look better to you than your present "here."  7) Others are only mirrors of you.

You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.  8) What you make of your life is up to you.  You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.  9) Your answers lie inside of you.

All you need to do is look, listen, and trust. 10) You will forget all of this at birth.  You can remember it if you want by unraveling the double helix of inner knowing.
    
Now, here’s the point.  Those are, indeed, basic rules, but they don’t come close to proving, establishing, or in any way suggesting that life is a game.  There is far more to any game than rules alone.  An effective game includes competition, alternative choices, problem-solving, risk-taking, built-in surprises, rewards, winning and losing, and a final goal — among other things.  If anyone thinks that life is a game, just think about how many characteristics exist in most games.      So much of life does not involve any of this.  More often than not, life is composed of typical, common, ordinary routine.  I would suggest that for many people in the world, it is more about merely surviving — finding enough to eat and seeking the finances to support themselves.   For others who have enough to eat and finances enough to support themselves, they just want to exist — quality of life is what they have and nothing more.
    
There is no question that there are parts of our lives that mimic games in some cases, like job seeking, project completion, and, perhaps, dating.  But I would contend that much like Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs," when life truly becomes a game, you have raised yourself much higher on “the hierarchy” — whatever the hierarchy is.   Although Cherie Carter-Scott’s book (mentioned above) is a basic (some reviewers said “elementary”), interesting read, the “rules” she writes about are close to the bottom of the hierarchy.
    
What I have discovered throughout my life has been to consider the comment “life is a game” as a cliche — a trite expression that has little meaning.  There is no doubt that when I was a university professor, I felt intense competition — for tenure, promotion, and merit.  The “publish or perish” impetus necessary to further my academic career supplied the motivation; however, more than anything else the motivation was internal since it was well honed throughout graduate school.  Even though there was competition, alternative choices, problem-solving, risk-taking, built-in surprises, rewards, winning and losing, and a final goal, I considered all of this an extension of my graduate training.  Yes, it could have been considered “a game,’ and there are many who do; however, for me, it didn’t change anything.  The elements were the same, and the needs wouldn’t change either.
    
Do you consider life a game?   That’s perfectly fine.  Remember what Gordon Shippey said near the beginning of this essay: “In the long run, harnessing the engaging properties of games may become a serious productivity driver.”  The real determiner of success for your life is in the quotation by Abraham Lincoln: “In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.”
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At Scott H. Young’s web site, “Get More From Life,”  Young has an excellent essay, “Life as a Game,” and his last paragraph explains how important the “life as a game” metaphor can be: “The metaphors we use to describe life will decide how we behave and feel within it. Viewing life as a game can be incredibly freeing in seeing all our obstacles and problems as adding to the experience. By understanding that the game of life operates from a common sense set of rules we can understand these rules then utilize them to our effectiveness. Finally, by understanding that the game of life is about experiencing the journey with a purpose we can be successful and happy. Viewing life as a game isn’t without its fallacies, but you may want to try this perspective to see if it improves your own quality of experience.”

At the “Freedom from the Known,”  ivan campuzano web site, Campuzano has an essay, “Life is a Game: How Are You Playing It?” (April 27, 2011).  He gives readers of his blog instructions for how to create their own game.  He ends his essay saying, “I am assuming you will choose to play a game that will be full of joy and balance. This is your life, learn to play with it. Thank you for reading my post, be well. Your friend Ivan Campuzano.”
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Copyright February, 2012, by And Then Some Publishing, L.L. C.