The Star of Bethlehem before the Three Wise Men.
We desire a culture in which everything is conceived in function of degrees of perfection, everything ordered according to the sublime in its respective genus.
Admiration is the sole true planner in life. It plans, directs, and helps us to feel our way. [faz intuir o nosso caminho]
Admiration is our Star of Bethlehem.
All that we see and admire transforms us. That which we admire enters into us. Admiration enriches, educates, and elevates. One is strong only when one admires.
Where love admires and admiration loves, good intelligence is established. The man who admires does not demand his rights. He is content with a little place in the sun…as long as he can admire the sun!
The soul open to the marvelous is a marvelous soul, capable of working marvels.
An individual’s true well-being consists of finding that which in his life he should admirably be in function of. When someone finds admiration in their life, their life has acquired direction.
A young boy admiring the knight. From bygoneamericana. Photo taken by Wayne Miller, USA in 1955.
The opposite would be a “passeggiata” of disconnected fantasies seeking fruition. The admiration of something supposes horror for its opposite.
I am made to admire, therefore I am happy to have found those that are more than I. “To admire is my life, and I seek nothing save something to admire.” This places something worthy of admiration in a person.
It establishes a form of seriousness, a form of cleanliness of soul, a form of honesty, and a charitable attitude – benevolent in the proper sense of the word because, being “volo bene”, it causes the soul to desire good for those things where good is encountered.
All this leads to respectability.
