Frank Lloyd Wright's statement above, made in an October 1954 issue of House Beautiful, is something that I've been reflecting on a lot this past month. In considering the PrairieMod Principle of "Useful and Beautiful," it occurred to me that many people may not be open to the things we talk about, because they are not familiar with what living in a "useful and beautiful" environment means. Our society values flash over substance; and our societal views on beauty are skewed on everything from personal appearance to our food. Is "Useful and Beautiful" a lost value in America?
You don't have to go far to see what passes for useful and beautiful in our society today—just turn on the television or flip through a magazine. Every show or advertisement has unbelievably perfect looking women, men or children interacting with giant homes or high-priced products most of us won't be able to afford. We end up idolizing these Venus' and Adonis' and collectively hate ourselves because we'll never look like them or live the over-sized lifestyles they do. Our national sense of what is useful (giant houses, cars, food portions) and beautiful (airbrushed and cosmetically enhanced) has led us to forget the simple joys of what life is really all about.
Revering the "Flash" about these Hollywood lifestyles is dooming us to an empty shell of an existence. A bigger house, a bigger car, more expensive things will never equate with true usefulness, true beauty, true happiness. Our country needs to stop placing the superficial above substance. True beauty is found in the natural, in the simple, in the quiet and reposed. The lily doesn't need to be gilded to make it beautiful–its beauty is inherent and only enhanced by other natural things around it. You and your home should be approached the same way.
In the same vein, bigger or more doesn't mean better or more useful. True usefulness comes from doing the most with the least. A home or apartment that is just enough for you and your family's lives. A car that is enough to get you from point A to point B. Food that sustains and satisfies you without added fat, sugar or chemicals.
We Americans are hard pressed to recognize these traits because we have lived without them as values for so long. As Wright points out in the statement above, if you don't know it and live with it how can you expect to appreciate it? Our hope is that through education, the direction of our society can be changed from this path we've all been following. There is always hope and if we stop and think about what "Useful and Beautiful" really means to our lives, we can start living to appreciate it and not miss out.
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