Ideas on Beauty

Ideas on Beauty
It has been aptly said that a thing of beauty is a joy forever. It has to be seen, however, as to which kind of beauty this saying applies to.
A person with a pretty face may not be beautiful at heart. A lady with good looks does not look beautiful if she acts like an enraged bull in a china shop. That is why it has been said that handsome is as handsome does.
Again, beauty is subjective. For instance, a lover of nature is drawn to a beautiful flower, but to a bird a flower is only a thing to be pecked at. So, beauty does not necessarily lie in the colour or contour, rather it lies in the eye of the beholder.
Further, in seeing only superficial physical beauty, man seems to forget what lies under the skin. If he remembers that the skin covers an unsightly mass of flesh, bones, veins and many organs, his idea of beauty will become meaningless. Hence the saying that beauty is only skin-deep.
Time leaves indelible marks on the face in the form of wrinkles, proving that there is no element of permanence in physical beauty. Disfigurement by accident also reveals that superficial beauty is not a joy forever.
The human body and its beauty are nourished by food. Hunger robs a man’s face of its beauty. Similarly, disease, fatigue and worry eat away at the loveliness of a visage.
Moreover, colour and form look beautiful only when illumined by light, and colour is nothing but the product of light of a particular wavelength, and undeniable is the fact that light itself is beauty.
All these facts bespeak the truth that real beauty should be lasting and divine. This kind of beauty is to be found in God, who is light personified, and who knows no disease, sorrow, ageing, injury, wear and tear, fatigue or weakness. He is the one who bestows beauty of the mind and spirit on humans. This beauty is exquisite, pure, natural, innocent and ennobling.