Blog Dis
Truth and its beautiful brutality... Part 1
2024-09-03
I am off to the wild, lustful yonder of bravery as I wade knee-deep into the oldest philosophical argument: truth vs beauty. Are you wisest if you pursue truth over beauty, or are you superficial for seeking beauty over truth? The battle between these two titans has raged on since humans developed a frontal lobe and leaned over to count their toes only to bump their silly noggens. Beauty often wins over truth. But many an accomplished poet and philosopher would tell you that truth is the only form of real beauty.
And here the split of reality cracks into two.
Many years ago, I traveled in Europe for one month and the first leg of my trip began in England. I rode the Tube with a male friend who couldn't take his eyes off a young woman sitting opposite him. I only observed, not wanting to break the spell by commenting on his rude staring. I needed to watch a man in the throes of being enamoured by an object of beauty. There's a special kind of beauty in the truth of the human condition. The brain is hard-wired to process information of all sorts but the brain is particularly geared toward attraction to attractive people. The ancient desire to procreate has pulled the attention of many a male and female to transform into blubbering idiots at the thought of getting closer to someone who they deem to be beautiful. At the time, I didn't consider whether or not my male friend would be regarded as beautiful himself by the object he was staring at, oh no. I only judged the object of his rapt attention as being beautiful, and she appeared to be no more than (19) years of age, unblemished skin, soft brown eyes and hair and clearly oblivious to the man ogling her. Later when we disembarked, I commented to my friend that if she wasn't beautiful he probably wouldn't have stared at her to which he retorted, "She doesn't have Classic beauty but I could tell she was beautiful on the inside..."
Uh-huh... of course he could tell she was beautiful on the inside! Right! More than likely he didn't want to offend me, which I wasn't in the least. His comment, though, made me think about the outer beauty around us and the inner beauty that remains hidden. Either you focus on the external beauty of people and things or you scratch the surface to find the real beauty. That means that underneath the surface may or may not be beautiful. To a superficial individual, it logically rules out for them even getting to that point because they wouldn't go further knowing the surface isn't beautiful to begin with, so why bother? We are now entering into the wobbly world of subjectivity which is what beauty is all about. Whereas, truth mutates and takes on different shapes and forms and should by all rights be sought after over and above beauty. Rarely, though, is this the case. Truth may be the beginning point yet often beauty wins out in the end. Take for example photographs which can be touched up to present a false kind of beauty as truth.
This is only Part 1. I've barely scratched the surface on the subject of beauty vs truth bcus I had an agenda, prior to drafting this post. I had to pre-mix my permanent hair colour gel, apply it, and while I waited, I soaked my tootsies in hot water to easily remove my old, chipped nail polish. Then I scraped, clipped, sanded, and buffed my toes and heels, followed by applying a salt scrub to exfoliate my face. When the waiting period was over for the hair colour to set, I took a shower, after which I applied a new layer of nail polish, and a light hint of foundation on my face, and some eyeshadow and all-natural lip-shiner. And all of this effort was done in the name of beautification, rather than to step out into the public wearing not a stitch of make-up or having not coloured my hair. It's a personal choice. I dress for myself. I work-out for my benefit, not for the benefit of others. This is my truth.
My subject matter in this post is logical. I've accepted long ago that others judge me at the outset based on their version of what beauty should be, rather than my version of beauty. And so it goes.
I told you, these are dangerous and dark waters. Next post, we learn about the breast stroke.
And here the split of reality cracks into two.
Many years ago, I traveled in Europe for one month and the first leg of my trip began in England. I rode the Tube with a male friend who couldn't take his eyes off a young woman sitting opposite him. I only observed, not wanting to break the spell by commenting on his rude staring. I needed to watch a man in the throes of being enamoured by an object of beauty. There's a special kind of beauty in the truth of the human condition. The brain is hard-wired to process information of all sorts but the brain is particularly geared toward attraction to attractive people. The ancient desire to procreate has pulled the attention of many a male and female to transform into blubbering idiots at the thought of getting closer to someone who they deem to be beautiful. At the time, I didn't consider whether or not my male friend would be regarded as beautiful himself by the object he was staring at, oh no. I only judged the object of his rapt attention as being beautiful, and she appeared to be no more than (19) years of age, unblemished skin, soft brown eyes and hair and clearly oblivious to the man ogling her. Later when we disembarked, I commented to my friend that if she wasn't beautiful he probably wouldn't have stared at her to which he retorted, "She doesn't have Classic beauty but I could tell she was beautiful on the inside..."
Uh-huh... of course he could tell she was beautiful on the inside! Right! More than likely he didn't want to offend me, which I wasn't in the least. His comment, though, made me think about the outer beauty around us and the inner beauty that remains hidden. Either you focus on the external beauty of people and things or you scratch the surface to find the real beauty. That means that underneath the surface may or may not be beautiful. To a superficial individual, it logically rules out for them even getting to that point because they wouldn't go further knowing the surface isn't beautiful to begin with, so why bother? We are now entering into the wobbly world of subjectivity which is what beauty is all about. Whereas, truth mutates and takes on different shapes and forms and should by all rights be sought after over and above beauty. Rarely, though, is this the case. Truth may be the beginning point yet often beauty wins out in the end. Take for example photographs which can be touched up to present a false kind of beauty as truth.
This is only Part 1. I've barely scratched the surface on the subject of beauty vs truth bcus I had an agenda, prior to drafting this post. I had to pre-mix my permanent hair colour gel, apply it, and while I waited, I soaked my tootsies in hot water to easily remove my old, chipped nail polish. Then I scraped, clipped, sanded, and buffed my toes and heels, followed by applying a salt scrub to exfoliate my face. When the waiting period was over for the hair colour to set, I took a shower, after which I applied a new layer of nail polish, and a light hint of foundation on my face, and some eyeshadow and all-natural lip-shiner. And all of this effort was done in the name of beautification, rather than to step out into the public wearing not a stitch of make-up or having not coloured my hair. It's a personal choice. I dress for myself. I work-out for my benefit, not for the benefit of others. This is my truth.
My subject matter in this post is logical. I've accepted long ago that others judge me at the outset based on their version of what beauty should be, rather than my version of beauty. And so it goes.
I told you, these are dangerous and dark waters. Next post, we learn about the breast stroke.
