Beauty and ‘attracting’ the Beast…

A beautiful post by a beautiful soul exploring the meaning of beauty for them in their life both past, present and also future.

I came across a quote the other day which asked – Who would we think is beautiful if society did not tell us who is beautiful?

When I was growing up I was introduced to several versions of the concept of beauty.

My father was an artist and taught me to see the aesthetics of beauty in everything. He could make a pile of garbage look gorgeous. He loved to paint detritus seen through the eyes and poetry of his artistic soul. He could also, with one word, or one flick of the paintbrush, accentuate the flaws within someone or something considered by popular opinion to be perfect and beautiful. His way of saying – one person’s ideal of perfection and beauty may not be the same as another’s. It is all in the eye and mind of the beholder.

He liked to point out my physical flaws, the ones which made me not beautiful. I hated him for doing that, but his actions encouraged me to see beyond the physical, and for that I am grateful. My ego on the other hand…

My mother was obsessed with physical beauty, as were many people in the social circle of my parents. I was never good enough… always hampered by some form of ugly… to be conventionally beautiful. Society agreed and reinforced that. My mother on the other hand was hampered by being too conventionally beautiful, it made her rather ugly on the inside. But that doesn’t mean all those who are conventionally physically beautiful are ugly on this inside. Sometimes beauty is only skin deep, sometimes it is skin deep and deeper than that.

I also came across a quote the other day which said – It’s surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognising that their feelings towards other people are largely determined by their feelings towards themselves, and if you’re not comfortable within yourself, you can’t be comfortable with others.

If we hate or love someone because they are beautiful… what does that say about us and our beauty?

Isn’t life and the world created by us humans, a fascinating place!

Thank you for sharing and baring your beautiful self, Alienora!