It ‘s hard to explain what the Perfect Beauty is.  It’s a somewhat amorphous concept while also being infused all around me.  I can see it, but I can’t seem to explain it even though it rules my life with an iron fist.  It is a beauty that demands worship—a worship you can not help, a worship that will eventual consume you.  For what the world does not realize is that once you have chosen to see the Pure Beauty, you are forever bound to serve it.  If you have the ability to see it, you also have the knowledge that it must be protected at all costs. And you have the knowledge that it is the single most endangered thing in the world.  You become a knight bound to protect it even though the fight will eventually consume everything you are and everything you have to offer.  Once seen, it owns your soul for you can never again look away and you can never again forget.

It is in people—people whose beauty is so stunning it causes physical pain.

             

In them, you see the perfection that is possible in life.  Perfection is nearly impossible to find in a world so filled with ugliness, and not just any ugliness but one that sinks into everything until chokes all that is good.  Here in Andrej Pejic and Jared Leto, you see absolute perfection unblemished and untainted.  It radiates holding them above the filth and despair of the world around them.  It seems almost other-worldly as it is hard to believe such perfection could be produced by such a screwed up world. It embeds itself into your soul becoming a part of your being as you will never be able to forget them once you have seen them. 

Apollo was the Greek god of light, music, art, and knowledge.  If he ever existed in human form, he would be Jared Leto.  I mean, hello, Apollo’s mother’s name was “Leto”!  Not only does he represent the physical aspect of the Pure Beauty, but also everything about the spiritual and mental aspects.  His music is transcendant.  The lyrics he writes explain the truths about the Pure Beauty and its role and actions in the world.

His song ”Alibi” is a soundtrack for every knight of the Pure Beauty

No warning sign, no alibi
Were fading faster than the speed of light.
Took our chance, crashed and burned.
No, we'll never ever learn.

I fell apart, but got back up again,
And then I fell apart, but got back up again, yeah.

We both could see crystal clear,
That the inevitable end was near.
Made our choice, trial by fire,
To battle is the only way we feel alive.

I fell apart, but got back up again,
And then I fell apart, but got back up again,
And then I fell apart, but got back up again.
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o

So here we are, the witching hour,
The quickest time to divide and devour.
Divide and devour.

If I could end the quest for fire,
For truth, for love, and my desire
For my desire

And I fell apart, but got back up again.
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o
Way-o

I fell apart, I fell apart, I fell apart,
I fell apart, I fell apart,
But got back up again.

“Was It a Dream” chronicles the loss that serving the Pure Beauty brings and its inherent transitory nature.  It can be seen and it will make you desire to wrap yourself in it, but it will deny you the ability to ever reach it.  Each time you believe you have finally become a part of it, the dreams dissolves leaving you with emptiness in your soul.

"Was It A Dream?"

Your defenses were on high
Your walls built deep inside
Yeah I'm a selfish bastard
But at least I'm not alone
My intentions never change
What I wanted stays the same
And I know what I should do
it's time to set myself on fire
Was it a dream?
Was it a dream?
Is this the only evidence that proves it
A photograph of you and I
Your reflection I've erased
Like a thousand burned out yesterdays
Believe me when I say goodbye forever
Is for good
Was it a dream?
Was it a dream?
Is this the only evidence that proves it
A photograph of you and I
Was it a dream?
Was it a dream?
Is this the only evidence that proves it
A photograph of you and I
(A photograph of you and I)
Was it a dream?
Was it a dream?
Is this the only evidence that proves it
A photograph of you and I
A photograph of you and I
A photograph of you and I... in love...

Jared is the Pure Beauty incarnate but it comes with a price.  He rarely allows himself to relax, to sleep, to stop the endless quest to learn and create.  One day, I fear the Pure Beauty will consume him as it consumes all.  Will his Apollo-ness save him?

Vincent Van Gogh saw the Pure Beauty and vainly tried to capture it in his art.  The energy he poured into the quest vibrates in his art.  It was a quest that fueled the creation of beautiful art but consumed both his sanity and his life.  The energy and the madness both swirl in the frantic brushstrokes that are so indicative of his work.

His letters speak of his desperate struggle to show the world what he saw, to teach them to see the Pure Beauty, but he remained crippled by madness and poverty.  Not satisfied with just an ear, the Pure Beauty took Van Gogh’s life.

Michelangelo is probably the only one besides Jared Leto who has come to some sort of peace with Pure Beauty.  His art displays all the aspects of the physical perfection created by the Pure Beauty.

                                 

Whereas Van Gogh’s art swirled with its manic desire to capture and explain the Pure Beauty, Michelangelo’s shows the small bit of peace that one can achieve in serving the Pure Beauty once one realizes that the Pure Beauty has chosen to bless them with talent and one accepts that the price of that blessing will be their life-long service as an instrument through which the Pure Beauty will work.  It is not the same as the price as the disciple/knight must give for these lucky few receive the blessings of talent in return.  While the Pure Beauty can never be truly caught, it does very rarely choose to deposit a small part of itself into vessels through which it will work.  Michelangelo produced works of astounding beauty in exchange for a solitary life as a loner.  His poetry speaks of a great capacity to love and his art shows a deep understanding of the Pure Beauty, but as with us all, even though the Pure Beauty deposited a bit of itself in him, it still took all he had, it demanded his very soul.