The Tension Between Beauty and Humility

According to an ancient oral tradition, Jews are instructed to beautify themselves in carrying out their religious duty. They are told to carve a beautiful horn to play for religious services and make beautiful the fringes of a prayer shawl. The parchment upon which the words of God are written should be beautiful and the words written in the holy book penned in beautiful ink with a beautiful quill. The Torah itself should be wrapped in beautiful silk fabric.

Equating beauty with holiness was also exhibited by monks during medieval times as they created illuminated manuscripts. And in the Muslim tradition, the beauty of the language and imagery of the Koran is meant to enhance the appreciation of the scriptures.

However, there is a tension between beauty and humility.

The Amish believe that beauty takes you away from God, and personal displays of beauty are forms of vanity, a type of idolatry, as it makes the individual person the most important thing and therefore above God. Amish clothing serves strictly utilitarian purposes. To avoid fostering jealousy or envy, clothing is uniformly the same and dull.

The tension between humility and beauty was also present in the Edo period (1603-1867) in Japan. There, too, individual expression was anathema in a culture that valued social solidarity and harmony. While beauty was much appreciated, it was believed that beauty should never be used as a way of calling attention to oneself. Therefore, personal adornment was to be kept to a minimum.

The brocade jackets of Edo aristocrats were uniformly drab on the outside, the side shown to the world, but on the inside, the part hidden from public view, they were colorfully embroidered. Ordinary people were banned from wearing silk altogether. But the prosperity of the Edo period brought wealth where none had been before, and townspeople found a way to circumvent the rule by wearing kimonos made of cotton on the outside but lined with decorated silk on the inside.

There, beauty found its outlet, as it also did amongst Amish women. Quilt-making began with the same simplicity as everything else in Amish life. The first quilts were made of a single solid color—brown, blue, black, or rust. However, from the beginning, the stitching contained a nod to creative beauty. Holding the pieces together were stitches that created swirling feathers, curves, and grids. Women worked within the limits of their religious scruples, adding new colors, designs, and fabrics only after communal approval. An individual made no decision by or for herself. Eventually, piecing was added to the quilts and new colors expanded the quilters’ palettes.

The production of beauty may be frowned upon, it may be outlawed, it may go out of fashion, but it always finds its way back into the lives of people, just as water finds its way to the sea.