I’m in eighth grade, sitting in church waiting for Sunday Mass to begin.
A girl walks in.
A beautiful girl. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. A classmate I’ve never spoken to. The star of the class, if physical beauty is the measure. And to this smitten thirteen-year-old, it certainly is.
She lives on the next street over, though it might as well be the far side of the moon. I’ve walked by her house countless times. Never once have I knocked on the door or spoken a word to her.
I’m 13 years old and, I assume, so is she.
She crosses in front of me without a glance.
I am invisible to her.
As she passes, I’m struck once again by her beauty. Silently, I make a vow: I will never get married unless I marry her.
Otherwise, I’ll become a priest.
That was my backup plan.
I smile at the memory.
Looking back, it’s easy to dismiss as nothing more than a teenage crush. But it’s also revealing. What an extraordinary thought for a kid with his whole life ahead of him.
Yet I clung to it for a time.
Fast forward a few decades.
Beauty still takes my breath away.
And I’m grateful that it does.
Whether it’s found in a stranger’s face, a grandchild’s eyes, or an exquisitely beautiful piece of music.
Why?
I don’t have an easy answer. At least not one I would attempt to pin down with words.
Instead, I’m content to point toward examples.
Like this achingly beautiful Irish lament, sung in Gaelic.
Yes, this was created with AI. I’m not sure which tools were used, though YouTube’s Dream Screen and Dream Track are mentioned in the video’s notes. Learning more about that can wait for another day.
Some people may wonder whether creating beautiful art with the help of AI somehow diminishes the result.
I don’t think so.
At least not if my own reaction is any indication.
Beauty—true, breathtaking beauty—has a way of stopping time.
Unsullied beauty is common enough in nature, though we are often too busy to notice it.
In people, pure and unclouded beauty is rarer. Yet I always seem to be looking for it.
As if it were a habit carried across a lifetime.
The why of it all will remain a mystery.
Some answers live beyond words.
I’m okay with that.