In an ordinary environment at an inappropriate hour, do we recognize beauty?
Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is much more than what meets the eye. It is a quality that satisfy’s. Obvious beauty comes in the form of sunsets and supermodels. There is beauty also in the noise of a forest with a silence broken only by the trickle of a stream and rustle of a bird; it is the rush of being there alone.
It is smell, texture, awe. There is beauty in darkness, in awkwardness, in love and comfort. There is beauty in the natural disasters that are violence and destruction. Plain or ugly can be beautiful if beauty’s power has a halo effect. The optimist says there is beauty in everything.
Does a tree make sound when it falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it?
Sound is a wave, a vibration. It can be measured. It is not personal. What is personal is the interpretation of that sound, the feeling it evokes, how satisfied you are and in what way. Beauty is our own experience of an object and the feeling it induces.
Does beauty exist if we do not recognize it in the moment, if it doesn’t immediately satisfy?
If I close my eyes and miss the rainbow, if I am stressed out about a lost love to enjoy the beautiful serenity of a solo hike, is it still beautiful? Or is beauty too personal a sense, to inherently our own, to exist without our recognition? A tornado is not beautiful when it is destroying a home, a family, a life. A frozen image of that phenomenon, the rush of its power, the awe it evokes can be beautiful.
Does beauty exist if it is yours and not mine?
Beauty is a sense and it is subjective. It exists only as the perception of the observer. What exists when I believe something is beautiful and you do not?
Leave a Reply