(opinion article)

“Oh…look at this pretty girl!”
“Oh…what a handsome man he is”
“What an awesome smell your perfume has!”
“Wow! what a delicious dish!”
“This song is amazing!”

These are the common exclamations we all express; when something captures our attention.
Out of a group of 5 men or women or scents or foods or songs; we become a little ‘extra-aware’ of that specific one. Because; it drew our attraction towards it.
And we call that: ‘Beautiful!!’
All these adjectives; like ‘pretty’; ‘handsome’; ‘awesome’; ‘delicious’; ‘amazing’—indicate the single thing : It was ‘beautiful’.

Beautiful as in: Filled with ‘beauty’.  The first mandatory characteristic of something beautiful is: it makes us ‘extra-aware’ of itself. It sticks out even in a group of similar entities. That specific object or person gains a lasting period of attention from us—when we consider: It is beautiful; i.e. filled with beauty.

So, the thing Beauty is a ‘calling’, an invitation. Something that invites our attention. Something which automatically kindles our awareness a bit brighter; and then that awareness is directed towards it, and lasts for a longer duration of time than usual.

But I believe beauty will always be found where ever you look. In any small town, in a tree, in the words of a poem, in an elephant’s eyes or in a book. You’ll know it when that feeling shows up and reminds us what to look for. It will be apparent. It will be understood and obvious. It’s a lot like gold in a gold pan. You may see all kinds of golden things in the dirt as you swirl it around in the pan. Gold, however, sits down very still and the color is yellow, metallic yellow, even in the shade. When you see gold you realize that what you saw before was not gold.

Beauty is like that. When you see something beautiful you don’t need to ask yourself if it’s beautiful. You will hear yourself saying, “That’s beautiful”.

Beauty comes in many shapes and sizes. It comes in many colors. It comes in the form of sounds, like songs. It comes in the form of content, like a beautiful speech. Beauty comes in acts of kindness from one human to another. Beauty can be something given to with a make-over. Beauty can be at the base of sound reasoning in the form of a good idea or a perfect solution. I’ve seen some sunsets that were beautiful. However, when I look closely at any sunset I can find a beautiful aspect to it.

The whole giant picture of us and our planet and the others orbiting the sun, and the perfection of it all, the billions of years it’s been doing this is nothing short of beautiful.

The birth of a child is beautiful and so is the miracle that made him. My mother and father were beautiful people, beautiful parents, beautiful people raised them up from beautiful children, They were raised on a beautiful farm in a beautiful time to be raised in this world of ours, This beautiful world of breath being taken away and life being cut short in the beautiful cycle of life that we humans have to watch unfold. We are saddened by our losses and brightened by our joys. We know we’ll all be gone too. Just like dear old mom and dad, we hope to find a better place. It sure is beautiful here, though. I don’t imagine heaven could be much better than what we have right here on earth.

If we just stay here like a bag of bones in a hole in the ground, or if we are ashes adrift in the wind, there was something inside us that no one could find. Despite all the scientific efforts our conscience has not been found so far. It was someplace beside us, with us, inside us, but never could we remove it or find it and point at it, right there. That! The beautiful part of a loss, of death, is that no one knows just where our spirit goes.

What is beauty? Could you answer me, at long last?