Mark Olson at PsuedoPolymath, in his 3000th post, has challenged bloggers to name five works of transcendent beauty produced during the last century. Since beauty does exist alongside horror, Mr. Olson suggests that we name and remember the beauties of our century, lest we forget. Here are mine, off the top of my head:

1. The works of J.R.R. Tolkien

2. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and other works.

3. These windows by Marc Chagall.

4. “I Have a Dream,” a speech by Martin Luther King Jr.

5. The Green Revolution.

There are probably dance, architecture, design, science, technology and sports works and moments that could be added to this list, but I’m not so familiar with those areas of human endeavor.

The 20th century gave us much that was not beautiful such as the Killing Fields, Auschwitz, Holodomor, Stalingrad, and that list continues much too far. However, every age has beauty to claim as its own. Doestoevsky claimed that ‘beauty would save the world.’ In this vein it seems imperative that we remark and remember beauty that is in our midst.”

Thanks, Mark, good idea.