Was just catching up on my David Warren. You should read him, too. He is a very smart, erudite Canadian and I am just loving his web site and the more personal essays and observations that he offers up on a regular basis.
This is a great one.
"People today are profoundly calloused, from constant beating: from
living in environments that are monstrously ugly. They still make
“aesthetic judgements” — paradoxically sometimes the more fanatic from
having been twisted or suppressed. More often one discerns “spilt art”
on the analogy of “spilt religion.”
For the faculty will never leave man alone."
"Every child is born with
the capacity to distinguish fair from foul, awaiting cultivation. But as
in the moral & intellectual domains, the sensibility to beauty can
be perverted. And for all the callousing, the pain remains beneath the
skin, throbbing & disturbing one’s peace. It is symptom if not the
cause of an illness, for which people often seek pharmaceutical relief.
But joy cannot be restored with pills."
Wise wise words, thank you David Warren for your work and may your father's memory be a blessing to you and your family.