Beauty

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."


How many times have we heard these old wise words? Now, how many of us really live by it? I was thinking about this the other day when I was assigned to look up the definition of beauty for my Theatre class. According to Merriam-Webster, this is what it is:


"The quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit." 


If we honestly went by this definition, that old saying would hold true. But the sad thing is that in our culture today that's definitely not the case. We have molded our opinion of beauty into something so superficial that I don't think a lot of us even notice true beauty anymore. Let's face it, when you ask a guy what he thinks is beautiful, most of them (at least in our society) probably have a similar image in their heads: long hair, pretty and symmetrical face and perfect body. If you ask a girl if she thinks she's beautiful, most will say no. Why? Because most of us don't fit the "model-esque", perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect everything idea. We have flaws...flaws that we tend to be very insecure about because we're so terrified guys expect us to be that perfect everything idea. 


The saddest part of this whole thing is that somewhere along the line, the good majority of us (especially high school and college students) have forgotten that true beauty is so much more than looks. Like the definition says, beauty is something or someone that gives pleasure not just to the senses, but to the mind and spirit. Do we ever really think about that? 


There's an even bigger problem behind this, though. And I'll use myself as an example, because let's face it: I'm just as guilty of this as the next person. In my recollection, there are only two moments that I've truly felt beautiful (both of them have been in college, by the way.) And both times it's been because someone else has told me that. How twisted is this? How I view my beauty should not depend on what someone else tells me, but how I see myself. And before I can believe that anyone else thinks that, I HAVE to think that about myself. Maybe that's why I haven't felt that way more than twice. 


To be able to do that, we all have to look past what's on the outside. We can talk all day long about how we aren't vain and see past the exterior, blah blah blah. But when it comes down to the wire, we really base too much of beauty on what we see, not what we search for in a person. If we went by the true definition of beauty, well, everyone would be beautiful. And I think that's much better than defining it as some leggy chick with a perfect body, yes?