Admiration
Upward-Regard
Elevation response. Recognition of excellence that exceeds the self, without the wound. Admiration and envy see the same thing; only one of them is injured by it.
The word
From the Latin admirari, to wonder at, built on mirus, wonderful, the root that also gives miracle. To admire originally meant to marvel; the narrowing toward approval of persons came later. The psychologist Jonathan Haidt gave part of the territory a modern name, elevation: the warm lift felt on witnessing moral beauty, which makes observers want to rise.
The feeling
An upward pull with no injury in it. The chest opens, attention fixes on the excellent thing, and the self is briefly forgotten, undiminished by the forgetting. It often carries an impulse: to practice, to improve, to be better at something by tomorrow. Admiration is one of the few responses to another's superiority that leaves the admirer larger.
Against its neighbours
Envy sees the same excellence and is wounded by it; admiration is the uninjured reading of the identical fact. Awe responds to magnitude and needs no person; admiration is calibrated to achievement, and it closes the distance where awe would kneel at it.
In the work
The organising point sits above the centre of the frame. The eye is asked to look up, and nothing else competes for it.
No work carries Admiration yet. The element is named and the table is not finished.