If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, why do we go to so much trouble to beautify ourselves instead of expanding our beholding mechanism? Unless you're winking at your bad self every day in the mirror ( a al Fonzie), it's like rehearsing for a show whose script hasn't been developed.
For example, haven't you found moments of beauty in an old person's face? I certainly have - the beauty of wisdom and experience is written there in the hyroglyphs of wrinkled flesh. And an old person's eyes twinkle even more brightly than a child's.
I had a chance to watch American Beauty again the other night. That movie is like medicine, for eveything I've beheld since then has been beautiful. The final line in the movie delivered by the "dead" protagonist is worth repeating. "Every single moment of your stupid, boring life is so full of beauty, the heart can scarcely contain it. But don't worry if you can't see that now, because one day, you will."
It's true.
ReplyDeleteIt is all around us.
Two days of being so deep with simplicity.
I guess, as for ourselves, we see the beholder as us first.
Ah, that line was worth reminding us about. I'd forgotten it.
ReplyDeleteI also loved your line about the "hieroglyphs of wrinkled flesh".
ReplyDeleteLast evening while channel surfing for something to watch while I was on the treadmill, I happened past one of those "hollywood gossip" shows. They were showing some woman who had had another round of plastic surgery. She looked horribly disfigured. It was not at all beautiful.
I love that movie
ReplyDeleteThat's one of my favourite films.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're so right.
I find old men's blurred wrinkly tattoos interesting, and I'm hoping mine go the same way.
Oh, and why do we beautify ourselves? Masturbation! If we didn't think we looked good, we may not do it.
Not that I'm admitting anything...
Everything you say is true, however, there's nothing like a hott, shirtless, ripped, 20 year old surfer, with blond locks and a killer smile. :)
ReplyDelete(yes, I am that shallow) :)
HUGS...
Thank's for this post. That is exactly the feeling I've been discovering lately....I might even rent American Beauty this weekend. The only line from that movie that I can recall goes something like:
ReplyDelete"I'm the hottest piece of ass in the tri-state area." :)
There are so many different definitions of beauty.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of the heart, of youth, of love, of honesty (but not the kind of "honesty" that is just cruel), of laughter, of friendship...
Physical beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in this society, it's a very narrow view sometimes.
It's too bad.
My favorite scene in that movie is the kid watching his video of the plastic bag dancing in the wind. I want to be the type of person who can spot beauty in the most mundane of events.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I love the drive-thru scene when the fat girl says "You are so busted."
I like the sentiment. The movie, though, did not appeal to me. Mostly, I became wrapped up in the ways that it enforced the worst gender expectations. It also came out with a whole group of movies that focused on white-man angst about his alleged loss of masculinity (e.g. Fight Club).
ReplyDeleteYes, I am always like this. No, I am not a fun person with whom to watch movies. Sigh
You're good at remembering lines from films! You should act more!
ReplyDeleteLike the antlers in the pic.
Perhaps this is why we lemmings flock to anyone who is capable of pointing the beauty of everyday things.
ReplyDeleteAlong the lines of Rebekah's comment, there are many different distinctions of beauty. I may find a painting beautiful, but it doesn't erotically charge me the way a beautiful man does. So while the fascinating or compelling heiroglyphs of an elder person's facial experience can be indeed mesmerizing, they are not the same experience as the subtle play of muscle beneath skin of a young man mowing your lawn shirtless.
ReplyDeleteThe eye of the beholder matters because it is usually connected to the body of the beholder that you in turn are beholding.
Unfortunately all the men I meet in bars are looking for some of that outside beauty and not so much of the inner kind.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever met someone you didn't like from the get-go, or that you did like, for that matter?
ReplyDeleteI believe it also has to do with the "feeling" we get with people. Call it vibes, chemistry, whatever.
There are just certain people you automatically "feel" comfortable with as soon as you meet them...no matter what their appearance.
Not being one of the beautiful people myself, I've always appreciated both obvious beauty and the quirky charm that makes a person beautiful in their own way.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what a great sense of humor and intellect can do for the average Joe (or Josephine) and what the lack of those same qualities can do for an attractive person.
I find very few people completely without some physical quality that makes them beautiful in some way.
(Sorry...I allowed my bitter, jaded facade to slip there for a minute.)
life is most definitely in the details. and, just like macro photography, if i look at the details with enough attention and care, i almost always see something interesting, beautiful, and provocative enough to help me enjoy the big picture, as well. same with people. if someone's getting on my nerves, i try to focus on something very specific i like, no matter how small. it almost always removes my blinders.
ReplyDeleteThe character of Lester Burnham is one of the most profound/beautiful in the last decade of movies (imho).
ReplyDeleteThat is such a good point. I guess I've never thought about it that way. I learn so much reading this blog. :)
ReplyDeleteThe holidays are making you quite introspective. It's all very It's a Wonderful Life of you.
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally agree with you on the old people's faces, I think they are beauty and history all rolled into one.
So wait... When will you evict the nude lapdancer!!!!
ReplyDeletei love that line and couldn't agree more!!!
ReplyDeleteI was kind of thinking that if I was doing a private sitting for your drawing class that you'd keep my wrinkled arse a secret or at least airbrush some of my chasms out before you showed the world.
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note some of the most beautiful grand dames were at least in their late 60's. Grace under pressure. Age didn't shave off one smidgeon of their statuesque presence.
Hugs,
kb
Those with external beauty (like u :p) often lament how others only like them for what they looks like and not who they really are.
ReplyDeleteThose that do not have the external beauty lament how others do no take times to see the internal beauty that they have.
So at least the external beauty types draw the attentions...
no ration from me!
ReplyDelete