Elegance - a literary perspective

[Costi]

July 14th, 1099. Jerusalem is under the siege of the crussaders. A group of people – Jews, Muslims, Christians – gather in a square to listen to a wise Greek man (the Copt) speak to them.

“You shall ask questions and I shall answer. In Ancient Greece this was how masters learned: their disciples would ask questions about which the masters had never thought before, but they had to answer.”
...
“Nobody knows what tomorrow brings, as each day has enough of its own bad or good. Asking what you wish to find out, forget about the soldiers outside the walls and the fear within. Our treasure shall not consist of telling our inheritors what happened today; leave that to history. We shall therefore speak about our daily lives, about the hardships we were forced to face. Only this shall interest the future, because I do not think much shall change over the one thousand years to come.”
...
And a girl who only rarely would go out of her house, because she thought that nobody had eyes for her, said:
“Teach us elegance.”
The crowd in the square murmured: how can one ask such a question in the eve of the crussaders’attack, when blood shall fill the city streets next day? But the Copt smiled – and his smile was not ironic, but respectful of the girl’s courage.

And he answered:

“Elegance is usually mistaken for superficiality and appearance. Nothing could be more wrong. Some words are elegant, others manage to hurt and destroy, but they are all written with the same letters. Flowers are elegant, although they stay hidden among the weeds. The gazelle who runs is elegant, even when she is fleeing the lion.
And even in the fiercest passion, elegance does not allow the true binds uniting two persons to break.
Elegance does not reside in the clothes we wear, but in the way we wear them.
It does not consist, however, in the way we take out the sword, but in the dialogue that can stop a war.
* * *
Elegance appears when everything superfluous has been removed and we may discover simplicity and concentration: the simpler and more sober the posture, the more beautiful it is.
And what is simplicity? It is the encounter with the true values of life.
Snow is beautiful because it has a single colour.
The Sea is beautiful because it seems to have a flat surface.
The desert is beautiful because it seems just a field of sand and rock.
But, when we get close to each of them, we discover their depth and integrity and we recognize their virtues.
The simplest things in life are also the most special. Let them manifest.
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
The closer the heart comes to simplicity, the more it is able to love without restriction or fear. The more fearlessly it loves, the more it can show elegance in every gesture.
Elegance is not a matter of taste. Each culture has its way of seeing beauty, which is often different from ours.
But all tribes, all peoples share values that show elegance: hospitality, respect, the tenderness of gestures.
Arrogance attracts hate and envy. Elegance awakes respect and Love.
Arrogance makes us humiliate those around us. Elegance teaches us to walk in light.
Arrogance makes speech complicated, because it believes that intelligence only addresses the chosen few. Elegance transforms complex thoughts into something easily understandable for everyone.
He steps elegantly and spreads light around, who is walking the path he has chosen.
His steps are sure, the look is aware, the movement is beautiful. And even in the most difficult moments, his enemies cannot see weakness in him, because elegance defends him.
Elegance is accepted and admired because it makes no effort to this purpose.
Love is the only one that gives shape to what we could not dare even dream.
And elegance is the only one to allow this shape to manifest.

Paulo Coelho, "Manuscript Found in Accra"