Arthur Danto wrote that in the Age of Indignation beauty may be in for a rather long exile. We wait for its return. There is a culture – only a handful remain – living on the small island of Obi, west of Borneo, east of Papua New Guinea, bounded by the Seram Sea. Coincidentally, Obi is also the habitat of the violet bower bird, the only other animal that constructs solely for aesthetic motives. On the summer solstice in Obi, which is December 21, the inhabitants gather on the beach just before sunset. If the horizon is clear – sometimes for years it is not – the sun sets between two ancient palms and its rays fragment in their fronds bouncing off sprinkles of water that dance above the waves. This phenomenon is evidently pleasing to the eye.

            There is only a small patch of yellow beach from which this is visible. Each year the people of the island come with beautifully woven blankets and wait in anticipation. If the ominous cigarlike clouds that are common at that time of year are present in the sky, it only increases their anticipation and their potential for joy or sadness. At the last moment, the clouds might block the sun in the midst of a beautiful sunset. But if the clouds hang just above the horizon, the sun will drop below them, between the fronds, and the sky will radiate for a moment with golden crystalline mist before the sun disappears altogether. They have a two syllable word for the anticipation of this event. Translated, the word means, roughly, “Prepare for beauty!”

            - Bill Beckley, from the essay Generosity and The Black Swan in the book Uncontrollable Beauty