I am currently reading Richard Prum’s “Evolution of Beauty’ in the animal kingdom, most notably in birds, and the direction of the book is to understand the adaptive utility of apparent visual choice in natural selection. Least to say, it is an interesting “window” into the preparation of my Sunday meal, putting together food and pulling from ornamentals around my kitchen what would be pretty on the plate (and not just beauty to see, but also pleasurable in its intention). Naturally my salad looks beautiful because of the presence of the frangipani yellow-white flowers (it is the other name for plumeria) in its midst, even though they're not edible— but the longan fruit (like lychee), the papaya, the butter lettuce and the green olives are, for picture’s sake. The thesis in Prum’s book (which, by the way, is a retake on Darwin’s hypothesis on aesthetic evolution) frames a scientific understanding that the animal display of health, vitality and gorgeous colors are necessary selections in the promulgation and endurance of biological species, especially in the avian race, and he argues though beauty is not necessary to survive to be the fittest, it is an exception to rule (think of the utility of a peacock’s multifaceted tail with its stained-glass feathers that according to Prum, is it not futile, that beauty, other than for pageantry?)
Yet it stood the test of time.
There was something unfinished on the plate when I readied myself to eat, and I wasn’t just going to consume away. The plumeria bouquet had been in the vase for a week and some of the flowers where browning and were ready to be replaced, save one or two that still looked bright and fresh. I took those and found a place for them in concert with my fruits and vegetables; I wasn’t going to throw away beautiful until their time. I poured homemade red beets dressing on my salad and therefore the make up is complete. I actually don’t just eat. For all intent and purpose, I eat what I write because the source is there: inside me is beauty I could write. Why are flowers abundantly beautiful when there’s no physical competition in their respective biogeography to control them, yet they blossom from earth-ground and trees unmitigated and profuse to show off? Why are the winged creatures the exception in the animal kingdom to achieve spectacular image as they are, and not only flying but angel-like polychromatic and brilliant and singing? What is the relation (or interconnection, as my former classmate in environmental science would argue) to all these extraordinary miracles of evolution have with human food, and delight us and give us vitality evermore?
Birds appear to be the most aesthetic among animals, excepting of course men, and they have nearly the same taste for the beautiful as we have... and they charm by vocal and instrumental music of the varied kinds. - Charles Darwin
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