Beauty and the Auk

Auk, port bow

Beauty matters. We need it. But why, what is it?

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

This seemed right when I first read it. But the question continued to puzzle me. Eventually, I decided to try to make something beautiful and perhaps learn by doing.
With my son Finn's help, I built a wooden lapstrake dinghy---an "Auk," designed by Iain Oughtred on the Isle of Skye. Oughtred is famous for his timeless designs. Even his plans are gorgeous.
It took awhile, as I am only so-so with tools, and I'd never built a boat.

One day, when the hull was finished and I was working on the interior, I stood back to look at the Auk. It was amazing to see lines on a plan becoming a real boat. The curves were harmonious, functional, universal. Then I began to notice mistakes---one strake a bit low at the stern, the scar from a dropped plane, an off center joint... I realized that no two Auks would be the same. Each would incorporate the builder's choices and mistakes.
I was seeing the lovely lines of the boat and its imperfections, its uniqueness, at the same time. Its "strangeness!"
I understood, finally. Beauty emanates from the marriage of the universal and the unique.
These are our most disparate selves---at opposite ends of a life long see-saw. In beauty's presence, we relax, exhaling, as we are nudged or jolted toward balance.