Definition Essay On Beauty

661 Words2 Pages

I don’t really like fish. I can’t appreciate a well designed sports car, and I certainly can’t tell a fancy glass of wine from a two dollar boxed wine. But I understand those who do: People who feel warmth spread across their body when they make a great catch, or test drive a Lamborghini, or visit a prestigious vineyard. The idea of what’s beautiful can never be universal, because one’s sense of beauty is purely individual. Beauty is the addictive feeling of being engaged in something you love. Beauty cannot be undermined or changed by another’s opinion. Beauty is the feeling of being alive because some great part of you appreciates some great part of something else. The word beauty has twenty six synonyms on Thesaurus.com, but they all fail to capture the depth of what beauty means. “Pretty” satisfies a physical appreciation; it can be found on the surface and no …show more content…

People learn to appreciate what their parents and their culture appreciate, yet the sense of beauty throbs through each of us differently. I feel warmth spread across my back when I see the first sunset of summer. I feel absorbed and loved when I get our family’s Christmas card every year. I feel my throat clench and release when I see couples kiss in the rain. I know what beauty is because I feel the reaction. It’s not about what can be seen right in front of you, it’s about feeling a connection to something else. My mother appreciates little apart from the wilderness. She doesn’t like handbags or flowers or jewelry. She feels sparks when she smells pine trees, when she can see deer roam and crunch down on autumn leaves. Her arms feel soft and tingly when she can eat s’mores around a campfire. She feels beauty when she is surrounded by what she considers harmonious. My father, on the other hand, doesn’t get anything from nature—for him, beauty is the New York City skyline at

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