The Perception of Beauty
It’s interesting, isn’t it? That as we age, our perceptions about what beauty is expands…and someone we might not have found attractive years ago suddenly becomes appealing.
Does this mean we have settled? Or are we merely growing up?
I think it means we are growing up. And I think it’s great when it happens.
There is no one beauty.
Just as you find something attractive in one person and something different in someone else, so do people find these things in us. It’s a curious way to think of ourselves actually. But to think that someone might find something we door how we do it, attractive, versus how we look at any given moment, is a wonderfully freeing, mind-opening thought.
I, like most females, know that there are some pretty common standard forms of beauty in today’s culture. The long-haired, long-legged female with the breathtaking face is an obvious picture that everyone sees everywhere. Add on accent to her and there’s no turning back.
As for the men? Give me an Englishman or an Australian or a United States country boy and the melting starts. A fit guy who radiates niceness and sexuality...who also has an accent? Let me die now.
But in spite of all that, that in-your-face-common-appeal, if a man or woman starts talking and over time you find yourself losing interest, doesn’t it seem that how they look doesn’t matter quite so much? That what you might have considered to be attractive at first has now taken a back seat to how you feel when you’re around this person?
Now, all of a sudden, it doesn’t matter so much what a knockout she looks like if she starts whinnying or bitching one more time. Now, all of a sudden, it may not be enough that this hunk of a guy turns you on sexually. You’ve found that once the sex stops, there’s not much that he says that holds much interest for you. “Where’s the mental connection?” you start to think. And you’d be completely normal in thinking in this way.
We, as human and spiritual beings, need to interact on levels other than just physically.
Maturity is understanding that our perception changes. Both beauty and perception changes. It’s a good thing too, for can you imagine all we’d miss if we just kept our minds going in the same old tracks?
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, keep an open mind and watch what happens someday. It’ll happen unexpectedly. You’ll be talking with someone that you may have talked with before and felt no attraction for; and suddenly he or she tilts her head in a way that you find really cute. Or something is said that appeals to you and you find yourself looking with new eyes at a long-seen person.
Be glad that looks become secondary because honestly, some of the nicest and most loving people are quietly off to the side.