If you ask someone “ugly” how life is they will tell you how sad it is to be judged and told off at first glance. If you ask someone “beautiful” how life is they will tell you how annoying it is because people just don’t seem to leave you alone. What about an “average” person? We are often so involved in extremes that we forget to look at what is common.

In the past having the notion of beauty was actually a mechanism for finding ways to live. Sounds dumb right? But keep reading if you are interested.

What is the opposite of beauty?

Disgust. Beauty is attraction and disgust is repulsion. What would be the feeling you have if you saw a rotten, mouldy orange with maggots crawling on it? Disgust. What would be the feeling if you saw a round, red, shiny apple? Beauty. Here I use the word as a verb not noun, but instead of saying beauty you could also say “awe”,”craving”,”want”. I’ll put all those keywords together and tag them as beauty. Notice how disgust leads you to get away from eating something dangerous and beauty helping you nourish yourself? This is an innate knack built into us, just like how snakes know to stay away from brightly colored frogs.

But life now is not as simple as distinguishing between fruits. Where beauty was just a simple attraction to things that made you survive, it has now become a hobby. We have become so advanced that for a considerable chunk, getting non-rotten food is as easy as blinking. But our want for beauty hasn’t changed, just evolved. Now we see beauty as a humane trait. Here too, people are more attracted to what or who is beautiful.

Its not a lie that we do find particular things beautiful. The Fibonacci sequence exists even in the way tree branches grow. However, finding beauty is not just about survival instincts anymore now it’s like a privilege and hobby. Beggars can’t be choosers. Sounds familiar? There is a reason this quote is so famous, because we can apply it anywhere. Now I’ll go ahead and mention one more. ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’; you all say that but stop taking it at face value. I believe eye is a metaphor for your self. Your mindset makes you your”self”.

Everyone is beautiful. Sounds like hypocrisy, but beauty exists in many ways. You can find someone’s face beautiful, you can find someone’s thoughts beautiful, you can find someone’s work beautiful. Beauty transcends physical manifestation.

However beauty has an ugly side to it too. In this generation we fail to understand the true concept of beauty and it leads to a shallow outlook. But have the perfect face or body is really not everything. Neither is having the perfect grades or kindness. Beauty will differ from person to person and we must accept it. Obsessing over the beauty you don’t have can affect the other merits you do have.

All in all “beauty” is a funny concept I feel. But it should not be the deciding factor of anyone’s worth.