I love all beauteous things, Pt 2

 "Everything that is joyful, beautiful, glorious, comfortable, consoling, lovely, pleasing to the eye, good to the taste, pleasant to the smell, and happifying in every respect is for the Saints. Tight-laced religious professors of the present generation have horror at the sound of a fiddle. There is no music in hell, for all good music belongs to heaven. Sweet harmonious sounds give exquisite joy to human beings capable of appreciating music....Every sweet musical sound that can be made belongs to the Saints and is for the Saints. Every flower, shrub and tree to beautify and gratify the taste and smell, and every sensation that gives to man joy and felicity are for the Saints who receive them from the Most High."

 - Brigham Young

     The truth is, I'm not 100% certain how to write this blog post.

    Here it is, 11:15 at night. I am listening to the Spiritfarer soundtrack (It is a video game, and the music is by one Max LL, and it's DELICIOUS. Such a feast of beauty and sound. Here is a link, I highly recommend it.)

    And I want to write a post about the subject broached by this quote from Brigham Young, the pioneer prophet, an enigmatic and deeply flawed character whose formidable larger-than-life personality combined many contradictions, raw strengths, glaring flaws, and incredible energy all into one powerful human being. Dealing with such contradictions in the people I love, including myself, has become simply part and parcel of moving through life.

    And here, where there is usually Brigham Young the Lion, or Brigham Young the prophet, or Brigham Young the preacher or father of 60+ or polygamist or carpenter, instead we have Brigham Young the....patron of the arts? This quote comes from Young's talk given at the 1862 dedication of the then-newly built theater in downtown Salt Lake City. Dominating the skyline before any tabernacles or temples or many other major buildings had been built, this building had cost $100,000, no small sum at the time. Young himself furnished some of the elaborate decor, and sponsored plays of both Christian and secular flavor, even sponsoring professional actors from across the country to participate in shows there. Such a level of support shows an early and very strong inclination to the arts within my faith tradition. One might rightly assume the "tight laced religious professors" would include Latter-day Saints, as the fight against jazz music on the BYU campus in the 20's and 30's might attest. And yet, here it is, a plug from one of the most contradictory figures in my faith tradition for the arts, for not just one type or another but for EVERY beautiful thing as belonging to the Saints.

    And then, there's my LGBT brothers and sisters. 

     The rainbow runs rich and deep through all my favorite musicians and composers and singers, with musicians from Craig Hella Johnson to Samuel Barber to Tchaikovsky, philosophers such as Jane Addams, and painters and poets and writers throughout history being LGBT or likely LGBT.

    LGBT! Oh, the LGBT! My first thought in writing this post was "Don't talk about it this time, you've talked about it enough. It isn't everything for you." And yet it is. It is the contradiction. It is the flaw, and the strength, that runs through my entire life providing the beauty and pain that can only be found through dissonance.

    LGBT, and Latter-day Saint, an American with a collectivist orientation, a philosophical existentialist-borderline-absurdist with a belief in an overarching plan of salvation....contradiction! Whew. What a phenomena. And in it, is contained the very characteristics that allow me to lay hold of every beautiful thing. EVERY "happifying" sensation. EVERY "flower, tree and shrub" both physically and metaphorically. My theology gives me the justification, my LGBT-ness the awareness, my teleology the excuse to claim them all.

    And, what a time to be alive for someone like me! Youtube alone has thousands upon millions of beautiful sounds. Google images and wikimedia list thousands of paintings, and they allow the uploading from cameras and phones of photography from every corner of Earth.

Soundtracks. Choirs. Pop ballads. Orchestras. So much, so many, so little time.

I have paintings saved on my computer by Monet

Dali

Kolpashnikov

And so much more, all for easy viewing from the ease of my computer station.

I have photography of Bagan

Bruneau 

Chicago

And the beautiful men of this world

And so much more, again from the ease of my computer station.

I do not think it requires someone to be latter-day Saint or LGBT to appreciate the beauty of this world. But for me, they were necessary ingredients to lay claim to every beautiful thing. I invite you to find it within yourself to stretch a little, so that you too may lay claim to every beautiful thing.