Elegance
“…dignified grace in appearance, movement or behavior.” as defined by the Collins English Dictionary. Ingenious is a synonym for elegance that I particularly like. It is a special aptitude for inventing and/or discovering, which is defined by resourcefulness, originality and cleverness in conception or execution.
Elegance is not limited to human description. Mathematicians, for example, often refer to ‘mathematical elegance’ and ‘elegant proof’, when a theorem is simple yet effective and a proof is succinct.
David Suzuki, scientist and geneticist, best known for his TV series The Nature of Things, said, “I fell in love with the elegance and precision of genetic analysis and experimentation to answer profound biological questions.”
A person described as elegant has a grace and style that brings a certain calm and dignity into all aspects of their daily behavior.
“Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.” ~Paulo Coelho
Elegance is simple, understated and unflappable; it needs no adornment or pretense.
Isabella Rosellini wrote, “Women who stay true to themselves are always more interesting and beautiful to me: women like Frieda Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe and Anna Magnani – women who have style, chic, allure and elegance. They didn’t submit to any standard of beauty – they defined it.” An activist, an artist and an actress, powerful and compelling examples of elegance.
Societies today have a crassness often justified by ‘being real’, which more often than not presents a self-indulgent, crude inelegance.
I invite you this week to the awareness of elegance around you; elegance in form, thought and action and to the elegance within you.
Blessings!
