Through a Single Window

Magritte, The Human Condition, 1933

J and I have started to read The Great Gatsby together. We lie together in bed and take turns reading a page out loud. The last time we read a book together was a few years ago, when we read East of Eden. It's fun to be able to be able to stop and talk about imagery or symbolism as we progress through the book together.

Ever since we started the book, I've been thinking about a quote from one of the first few pages. Nick Carraway explains, "I was going to...become again that most limited of all specialists, the 'well-rounded man.' This isn't just an epigram - life is more successfully looked at from a single window, after all" (my emphasis).

The more I have thought about it, the more that I think there is some truth to this statement. I definitely can get overwhelmed when I try to think about all of the things that I don't know or understand. I even get overwhelmed when trying to consider the whole of art history, and that is the topic that is most familiar to me! It seems like the older I get, the more I realize that I don't know very much at all. Hence, the "single window" seems like the most palatable way for muddling through life.

So, what is my "single window" then? I suppose it would be "beauty." I'm drawn to beautiful things, beautiful ideas, beautiful expressions of ideas, and beautiful relationships with people.

If you had to choose a "single window," what do you think it would be?