what is beauty?

have you ever tried to explain beauty? what we think is beautiful is so individualistic, each and every one of us can view a work of art, a building, a color or a person and be affected by it in ways that are different from someone else. this is one of the things that make the world an interesting place. our ability to appreciate things differently is a core element to who we are, what a boring world it would be if we all agreed on the idea of beauty. but there are also things, people or concepts that seem to be transcendent. beauty comes in many forms, and form is one of the main elements of what is beautiful.

as i write this, i am sitting next to an asian garden; the water fountain is simply beautiful. the center urn has water pouring gently into the basin; the four pedestals on the corners are wood with plaster forms cast as flowers which are back lit from the inside. the light gently illuminates the surrounding area. each pedestal has a planter on top holding a plant with is moving in the breeze. would anyone look at this and see it as anything but a beautiful setting? possibly.

beauty for me is a complex form which appears simple, or elegant in design. the elements which make up the whole are complementary, they do not appear to be at odds with one another, and they help the viewer to understand or see the object without causing one element to appear out of place or opposing to the nature of the thing.

i also like repetition of form. when a simple element is repeated, making the design easier to anticipant, i seem to be more comfortable with the object more quickly. i can view the object from one small area and not be shocked to see the next area, it appears comfortable and familiar to me. objects which do not have this composition are constantly being reevaluated as you see them from new sides or angles.

these personal preferences mean that i like simple clean architecture with the layers of frank lloyd-wright, but am less taken by gothic architecture. mandelbrot art is complex and elegant to me, where as salvador dali is hard to be comforted by, as though constructed to make interpretation difficult. both are complex but the latter has intentional complexity, the former is simple parts multiplied and repeated. louis armstrong or elle fitzgerald are warm and inviting where modern fusion can be almost uncomfortable for me to listen to. a bright red sky of a sunset, with a gentle breeze on the skin is much more enjoyable than the harsh wind-blown morning of the stormy day which follows.

this brings us to beauty in people. what makes someone beautiful? it is much, much more than physical beauty. when you meet someone, you see the public face, the formal outer most layer of that person. if the meeting is part of a scheduled event, most likely the presentment will be the most polished and scrubbed face they have. they will have taken special care to look good, will be on their best behavior and will be using the formal conversational arts that we learn to make people like us. this is not who the person is, it’s who they want people to think they are. if that is the case, can you decide based on this if the person is beautiful? is this surface, carefully constructed, presentation a fair representation of the person?

over time, as you spend time with people, the public face becomes stripped away. layer by layer the person is exposed. some people are more or less forth coming with this exposure. i have a person who i was very close to, who sometimes i think i never really knew. the face shown to the world, was infrequently the true face, the face without the make up used to mask any emotional wrinkles that come with age or stress through life.

for people, beauty to me is still an appreciation of simplicity, openness, ease of understanding. a beautiful person is someone who is truthful, with who they are; even to themselves. they are hopeful and confident. they know where they are going in life and are happy to have someone fun along for their journey. they may have a history of broken travel plans, but they are resilient to the pains of travel and know how to see things in the best possible light. they also realize that everyone else is also on a journey, some are rushed, some just want to sit in the airport lounge and rest, and some are standing trying to find a map and to decide where to move next. a beautiful person would take the time to help these others, would talk to some who looked like they needed a friend.

beautiful people are much more than skin deep, they are beautiful all the way down to their core. the first beautiful person i knew in my life was my grandmother, she was not a classic beauty, but she was a person who lived a proud and purposeful life. she cared for her children and grandchildren, she had friends who meant something to her, and she had a career that was more than a mundane job which she did because she had to. she had pride in herself and her life. nana was one of the most beautiful people i have ever known.

beauty is happiness, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, strength, confidence and openness. it is not the number of wrinkles on your face. the shape of your body parts might come into it both for the first meeting and for how you feel about yourself, but that is not who someone is. we will all be 90 someday; if we are lucky. by then, we will be wrinkled and saggy for sure. i hope to still be active, i hope you are too, but we will not be super models. the beautiful parts of us can still be there though if we care for them and make sure we work to keep them as fit as we have our physical bodies.