As it happens, this is my first blog post, writing in the midst of chaos and lack of control over external forces battering what looks like ‘normality’.

I have always wondered what keeps me going on in a highly competitive market, where even friends can become direct competitors (I am glad they do). I am talking here about beautifying, or re-styling, our surroundings.

I have a simple answer, an answer which has never changes in decades. And it is aesthetics.

The meaning of aesthetics, though following rigid rules and philosophy, is very easy to understand. In my case it is the replication of beauty found in nature. What is inspirational in nature is its simplicity on the eye, yet complicated, unhindered and some times violent.

As someone once came up with the catchphrase ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ (which I do not completely agree on), beauty is a very subjective and personal subject, linking us mere mortals with our surroundings, our knowledge, skills and understanding of beauty. Let us say that someone finds beauty in a valley in its natural state, and someone else will find beauty in urbanizing the same valley with streets and seven floor apartments. They are both beholding beauty, which is subjective to their own understanding, and perhaps personal profits.

Now imagine the concept being used on any multitude of subjects, be it a piece of furniture, a room, a house, a car, a street, what we wear, how we behave. We are conditioned through aesthetics, and how we present ourselves usually puts us in pigeon-holes, and stereotyped accordingly. Breaking such barriers might only happen if we manage to break social norms and expectations.

After all these words, jumping from a simple flower in a valley to social behaviour, my best guess is you are asking what are these words all about?

It is very easy (kind of). Every key word will be discussed in different blogs, but the main idea about the sentences above is that everything is related. It is a hidden chain of behaviours, events, and simple thoughts that lead us to change. Not only personal change, but even on a community level. Yet again the word is aesthetics, leading change through understanding, education, seeking of knowledge and community involvement. These in turn lead us to changes in perspectives, changes in policy, changes in legislation, being reflected in more adaptability through guidelines, music, the arts and the creative industries.

These are big words, perhaps heavy words for many.

But we should never ever get disheartened.

Many times it takes a lot of energy to start understanding what is happening, why are we living the way we are, and what can we do. Let us keep on asking these questions, and let us keep on seeking answers.

But beware. Answers do not come to us magically, not even thinking outside the box (a personal opinionated argument that our brains are no boxes).

Sometimes answers are just staring us in the face. At other times we have to dig deep and invest in a lot of energy to start the process of change, a healing process, an understanding, whatever it is that we want out of our day, week or life.

We just need to seek courage. And courage, my dear friends, comes from the same source. Courage comes from the same process. Taking that first simple step, stopping to understand what we are doing (even though many times we are at a loss) and keep on going.

An that is what I am going to try to do through these blog posts.

Understanding.

I am not sure yet of what, or why. But my gut feeling is telling me to start, and see where this will lead us.

I count on your comments, opinions, dialogue, and most of all patience.

Thank you.

Carlo