The Problem with Elegance, by Mike McBride

1. THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS

As ordered by Zeus, in the ancient myth

He was courted by three Greek goddesses

For his adoration, each competing.

Hera, the most powerful, offered

To make him ruler of Europe and Asia.

Athena was by far the cleverest

Offering wisdom, and skill in battle.

Aphrodite, goddess of love, offered

Helen, the most elegant, desirable

Woman in the world, who had just married

The king of Spartan Greece.   So that

Sealed the fate of legendary Troy.

• MY STORY

When I think back to my early childhood

And remember my mother, ready

To step out in her evening dress: bright red

Layers of chiffon, off the shoulder but

Always tastefully sophisticated.

How I longed to hold on, to cuddle her

For ever as she kissed me goodnight.

I am wistful of those times, even though

I was far too young to understand them.

It was the mid-fifties and my parent’s

Life choices were determined by the war.

Too many of their friends had died.    People

Were struggling to rebuild their world.   If

Sometimes, they wanted to let go and lead

The high-life.   Why not!   They had earned it.

The next generation: their children,

Saw elegance as dated.    A reaction

By tired parents, hiding from a changing

World.   In the late seventies I had just

Arrived in London.   I visited my

Aging nanny, who I had not seen for

Twenty years.   She took me to her local:

A bar decked out in 1940s glitz:

As was she, and all her friends.   (She lost her

Fiancé in the Battle of Britain.)

They were living as if time had stopped:

Elegance had become monotonous,

Routine.

As one of the privileged few, I had

Learnt how to talk and dress: to knot

A tie, pin a cravat, wear a waistcoat,

Collar studs and cufflinks, fold a handkerchief;

Buy shirts and shoes, judge fabric quality

And tailoring; to hold an audience,

Time a joke, take interest in others,

Impress a lady and even how to

Eat peanuts at a cocktail party.

Elegance could become shallow, even

Despicable.

I’d seen hippies in communes, trying

To build their Shangri-La.   I wondered

What they’d do when they reached middle age

And found themselves in Dystopia.

Like many of my generation,

I went a step further, wanting to free

Others trapped by tyranny, poverty

Or ignorance.   Some sought third world challenge;

Others tried to save endangered species.

I went to teach in the slums of London:

Inventing simple games that could unlock

Neglected potential; reviving minds,

Kick-starting disadvantaged children,

Saving them from hopeless isolation;

Applying design to education;

Digging channels back to the mainstream

Finding the elegance of a clever

Solution.

Our generation had its own naivety.

A vanity of its own persuasion.

It took the slums and made them trendy:

The Docklands, Brixton a La Rive Gauche,

Industrial chic, inverted snobbery,

Chilling to jazz, swaying to folk-rock,

Being laid-back, multicultural,

Cool.

• AN OLD TESTAMENT PARADOX

Each man is born ignorant, in ‘Eden’,

Loses innocence as the price of knowledge,

So strives to be good but, like Moses,

He cannot enter ‘The Promised Land’.  

He can only show it to his children.

So what will the next generation do?

In its turn?   What will elegance mean then?

One thing is certain.    Like each one before,

It must make ‘The Judgement of Paris’.

Here’s mine.   Don’t be seduced by elegance!

Choose wisdom and you will find true beauty

And the power that comes from within.

M R McBride

Summer 2019