Our daily journey is full of experiences that, like children in a candy shop, invite us to have fun and capture our attention with the sweetness of a candy we can't resist. From music to movies, from novels to games, we are immersed in a whirlwind of entertainment as seductive as a sweet treat. But, as always, there is another side to the coin: there are those who, with a stroke of a brush loaded with art, adorn us with stories that, being so human, leave an indelible mark. With this essay, I invite you to rethink our lives as aesthetic experiences, where each of us is the leading artist. When we place ourselves in the role of creators, inner truths emerge, and the possibility of designing the reality that best suits us opens up.

The Flight of Imagination

But what is imagination? I believe it is an underground river flowing within us, a secret garden full of possibilities.

"Live life as a work of art," goes a phrase by the famous Friedrich Nietzsche. In the museum, at the concert, we delight in experiences that come from the outside, like a breeze that refreshes us without us having control over its direction. But what if we try to turn our lives into a personal artistic experience? What if we are the sculptors of our own statues?

Aesthetics, perhaps a somewhat vague but powerful concept, is increasingly presenting itself as a cardinal element in human experience. It is a form of communication with artistic hues, where harmony plays a crucial role, like a tango where each step matters. Through it, ethical concepts find a new way of expression, more subtle but just as powerful. It is a stroke of beauty, fascination, attraction, mystery, and even ugliness that captures people in their emotional sphere and allows them to tune into the message we want to convey. Aesthetics is a key that opens doors to the minds of others, a window to other ways of perceiving the world, and a lighthouse that illuminates other possible realities. Aesthetics is, in short, a work of art of the imagination, ready to be savored like a gourmet dish.

But what is imagination? I believe it is an underground river flowing within us, a secret garden full of possibilities. Closely connected with our intuition, imagination manifests itself in shades of gray, in the robustness of ambiguity and openness to the unknown. In contrast, reason presents itself in black and white, in the rigidity of zeros and ones, where 1+1 will always equal 2. However, in the depths of our being, truths beat that resist mathematical laws that demand to be explored with the brush of our imagination by creating artistic experiences.

Invisible Dragons: An Aesthetic Perception

The art of getting lost in the aesthetic experience is like a dance in which we must let ourselves be carried by the music. I dare to venture that most of us lean on this form of art to deal with our internal contradictions, with those feelings that remain unsaid. We have an innate inclination to pay attention to lessons that unfold like paintings before our eyes, to teachings that take the form of sculpture, far more than to those dictated in a linear and direct way. As Jordan Peterson well pointed out, our psyche is designed to understand life through stories, as if we were characters in search of our own narrative arc.

Literature is a clear exponent of this sincere art that, using the aesthetic technique, captures the reader and provides lasting teachings. Although the stories change over time, they are usually built from known archetypes, like the hero, to reflect our experiences and themes inherent to our human condition. The information in them condenses like a capsule, making it more understandable. This is the magic that resides in children's stories, where ethical lessons come to life in the creation of attractive and entertaining worlds.

An example that has captivated me is the story of the American cartoonist Jack Kent, titled There is No Such Thing as a DRAGON. The tale, narrated in a playful and even humorous way, addresses the consequences of ignoring problems, or "dragons," that live with us daily. It is through the story, the colors, and the figures of the drawings that this charm is formed, leaving lessons for both adults and children. Here lies the power of aesthetics: by establishing an emotional connection, it manages to communicate a profound message.

Our Masterpiece

So, how do we translate these aesthetic experiences into our own lives? How do we turn our existence into a work of art? The answer lies in the canvas of our imagination. We must be prepared to accommodate all the possibilities the real world can offer us. In simpler terms, we have to imagine different scenarios of our lives and dress with other characters and viable scenarios. Living our characters in the work of art we create is like experiencing a script we write ourselves.

It's crucial that we make the artistic decision to live in harmony with our intuition

It is essential that we teleport ourselves to other realities and connect with different interpretations of life. It's as if a skeptic imagined himself as a Catholic or a couple tried to imagine living outside their relationship or with someone else. By shuffling these alternative scenarios, we can glimpse what we truly long for and want to change or keep. It helps us be more humble both with other people's experiences and with our own contradictions. Imagining different scenarios allows us to perceive and resolve the dragons with which we coexist, or, conversely, it helps us to be thankful for our reality.

The aesthetic experience, therefore, enables us to confront and recognize our internal tensions, to interpret and overcome them. We should not remain paralyzed by fear or anguish. On the contrary, we must make the artistic decision to live in harmony with our intuition. Although it may seem that we are moving away from the rational, from the zeros and ones, it's vital that we stay connected with what we internally feel is true.

The Beauty in the Beast

It's not just about seeking aesthetic beauty in every corner but also about learning to tolerate and appreciate the ugliness, the mystery, the ambiguity, and the "dragons" that coexist with us. Aesthetics, in its broadest sense, gives us the glasses to perceive the world from various angles and, as a result, offers us the possibility to reconfigure our experiences, giving them our unique hue.

This aesthetic approach to life, far from being a mere theorization, can be a daily practice. By immersing ourselves in aesthetic experiences and allowing them to affect us, we have the opportunity to reflect, to rethink our beliefs and preconceptions. Moreover, by imagining ourselves in different situations, we not only achieve a better understanding of ourselves but also foster greater empathy toward others.

The Ballet of Life

Although we live in a society guided by clear rules and norms, our inner world is a universe in itself, rich in nuances and not always fitting into the binary codes imposed on us. In this mix of reason and emotion, of certainties and doubts, light and shadow, lies the beauty of the human experience. In this space, aesthetics offer us the tools to communicate and understand each other better.

The Dance of Self-Affirmation

Living our life as an artistic experience is an act of self-expression and a path of self-knowledge and self-affirmation. By allowing ourselves to explore our contradictions, passions, and internal truths, we can fully embrace the complexity and richness of the human experience. This is the path to a more authentic existence; a life lived with greater depth and meaning. In this constant dance with aesthetics with art, we can shape our identity, perfect our steps, and dance to our own rhythm without losing the harmony of the whole. It is then that we discover that, in reality, we have always been the choreographers of our existence.