One thing the Gods will give you, no matter what pain you may be subjected to in this life, is the opportunity to experience beauty. They have gone to great pains to interweave this often-monstrous world -- where the insurmountable often weighs against the good odds -- with beauties of various and rich kinds.

The opportunity is there. The question is whether we will take it. That we will experience pain and difficulties is, unfortunately, one of the facts of the pre-Ragnarok world in the Axe Age. Yet within it all, what we come here for is beauty.

It is important to take the time to experience and appreciate that beauty, and to give thanks for it. For with all the bitter, melancholic experiences handed to us, there is, through it all, great, poignant beauty.

In fact, we need the Gods for this as well, because sometimes the beauty of life is so strong and overpowering that it can feel like it could crush it. We must worship, and give back, and express that beauty, in whatever way we can, artistic or not, in order for beauty to have life-bearing effects. For beauty is power. It is the power of the Gods. I am not discussing formal qualities of attractiveness, which many evil things can have. I am talking about the experience of beauty, which allows one to fall in love with life despite its trying frustrations and struggles.

Let us thank the Gods for beauty. And let us welcome it into our life with song and dance and worship and love.