Towards the end of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the fox tells the protagonist: “Here is my secret, it is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
These words of wisdom say so much about where our society stands at this important juncture in its history.
Are we able to see the invisible? Are we able to appreciate values like truth and beauty? Are we interested in these values at all? Do we make time to enjoy life in its spiritual and moral aspects? Are we still able to enjoy the sounds of silence?
As Maltese we are usually very proud of our heritage but we also need to be more responsible for safeguarding it.
There is a beauty to the sinews of our islands that we need to protect. There is a harmony in the intermingling of urban and rural areas that we need to preserve for future generations. There is a beauty to the islands that cannot be valued in economic terms.
It cannot be measured in monetary terms, it cannot be the object of development proposals. It is a harmony that we need to see, because at times, as we watch, we miss it. But when it is gone, we will feel we have been robbed of something very precious.
H. G. Wells once said: “Beauty is in heart of the beholder.” If we truly love Maltese landscape and our heritage, it will be easier for all of us to do whatever we can to protect it.
We will be able to put a value to it that is not in euros or dollars or dinars, but which lies in the ability to stand in silence and let oneself be uplifted by the sheer beauty of our landscape, our flora, our fauna. But this is a question of the heart. If we truly love our islands we will find the moral and political will to protect their beauty.
H. G. Wells put it so well: “There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments and railways and iron bridges and engineering devices to oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection.”
Let’s take the example of the environment-friendly initiative to invest in photovoltaic panels to adopt a ‘greener’ energy source.
It has its good points, but the installations themselves have had a horrendous impact on the aesthetics of the Maltese landscape. Solar panels protruding from the rooftops of old and beautiful village-core houses are an opprobrium and a measure of the imperfection and failure of this initiative, the result of a policy which has gone somewhat wrong when it comes to its impact on the environment.
In order to save money on electricity bills we may have ruined a heritage of beauty and aesthetic harmony that is priceless unless the advancement of technology brings us better and more aesthetically pleasing alternatives.
This is but one example of an endemic disregard for our heritage. The big question is: how are we going to safeguard this beauty that speaks to the heart of a person who truly loves Malta, who has a sense of belonging to the island?
Do we need to ruin the island’s invisible and yet visible beauty, simply to be comfortable now and ruin the heritage for future generations?
The answer lies in our hearts. Beauty lies in the heart of the beholder.