Beauty

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Beauty, therefore, is something that is as individual as there are people in the earth. And although there are some things in life that pretty much everybody agrees are beautiful ~ like sunsets ~ most things may appear beautiful to one person while another person doesn’t care about the very same thing, or even feel that very thing is ugly...

Something else that is said about beauty is that it comes from the inside. In other words, while the appearance of someone or something may be striking, it becomes true beauty when this striking appearance is joined by something radiating from within; something that perhaps appeals even more than what shows...

This makes beauty an interesting concept to ponder.

It seems that beauty is not based in objective observation. When considering the beauty of a place, a thing or even a person there is some sort of inner dialogue that evaluates what can be seen on the surface, as well as whatever lies beneath that appearance.

And suddenly all kinds of other things start to weigh in...

Let’s for a moment look at nature...
While one person may decide a cultured park, for instance the park at Versailles, France, is the most beautiful nature can be, someone else may feel that a forest is even more beautiful. And yet another person may say that the wilderness where few people set foot will show the true beauty of nature.
Three vastly different perspectives on nature’s beauty... They are all true ~ albeit not for everybody...

This leads me to think that there are (at least) two things at play when we are considering beauty.
At first, beauty ~ what is beautiful ~ is a perspective. It is how one person sees it.
Second, the discernment on what is true beauty from the perspective of that person depends on the inner dialogue and may well be based upon the inner needs of that individual...

For instance, a person with a great desire for structure in their lives, may find a structured environment in nature more appealing than, let’s say, the rugged wilderness. Or a farmer, who’s livelihood depends on the fertility of the soil and how it can sustain and grow crops, may find more beauty in lush farmland rather than in a dry desert environment...

So ultimately what each of us feels is truly beautiful is based on how we look at things, how we think about things ~ and yes, even what we believe to be beautiful...
It would then also appear that whether we deem something that is outside of us beautiful depends on our inner dialogue, rather than on any ‘objective’ measure of beauty in the world around us...

So beauty indeed is in the eye (and mind) of the beholder!
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