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Beauty

Posted by Herb7734 8 years, 7 months ago to Culture
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I thought that we might contemplate a subject having little to do with politics. Being old, I often look at things based on what would today be considered as no longer in use. Take beauty for example, I think we can all agree on certain standards of beauty like when we see a flower, certain art, or hear a piece of /http://music.It is pretty easy to expound on their beauty. One thing, however, I find to be less easily understood, is the beauty of people.

Standards of what is considered beautiful have changed from era to era, and generation to generation. Look at runway models. They are skinny, barely pubescent girls. And , girls is what they are, not women. Yes, they have beauty, but they are not a standard of beauty. Real women simply don't look like that. Compared to women, when it comes to beauty in men, they have it much easier. They seem to come in all shapes and sizes but still get their share of admiration. I suppose the current standard for male beauty comes from Hawaii in the form of an ex-wrestler named Dwayne Johnson.

But beauty, and I mean real beauty is not just skin and bones. It is also intellect, attitude, grace, and expression. I started thinking about this one day as I thought about my wife. When I first met her at a party 62 years ago, and asked her to dance, she was pretty and she was a great dancer. She made my stumbling steps look good. As I look at her today, I realize that she has grown into true beauty. And I thought, how fortunate I was to be committed to such a woman, whose true beauty has only grown as the years have gone by. I hope I am up to her standards.


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  • Posted by chad 8 years, 7 months ago
    I don't know that men have it any easier when it comes to judging beauty and only looking at symmetry and muscle tone. Any one lucky enough to find someone to love and be loved by is fortunate, there are few choices when it comes to marrying intellect, moral choices and objectivist thinking. Then there are the personal idiosyncrasies we hope will be appreciated and not made fun of.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    What I thought process experience comes out of no where.
    Old dino has pointed at the TV and laughed or said, "Oh, crap!" more times than I can recall over the years.
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  • Posted by cwieder3 8 years, 7 months ago
    Sorting through the comments posted on this subject, I would add LIFE, as an essential quality/standard of (human) beauty. “Spirit,” which was suggested by mminnick is pretty much a synonym in this context. Life, as you all know, is, according to Rand, the standard of morality. I think that life (thriving aliveness) is the aesthetic counterpart to the life-standard in moral theory.
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  • Posted by GaryL 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Ha! Prescience, great word. Not so much any kind of pre science as it was I felt many others felt the same as I did and were totally disgusted with the way things were. He did stick his foot down his throat more times than I would have liked but so to did all the others.
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  • Posted by ycandrea 8 years, 7 months ago
    Just from the glimpse you have given us, I think your long, loving relationship with your wife is beautiful.
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  • Posted by GaryL 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Back before Trump ever announced he was running I made it clear here that I was in his corner. I got laughed off this forum by the usual suspects and I wish I could pull up some of those posts. My how things have changed in a year and a half!
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  • Posted by 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    You are welcome.
    I am always in wonder of those who never learn, and fail to appreciate what they have. They turn gold into lead.
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  • Posted by GaryL 8 years, 7 months ago
    Good one Herb! Like me you are realizing that many things do actually get better with age. Like a fine scotch I've been noticing this more and more. I like the older cars and the music from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I still do love the youthful female form but would not trade my wife for any of that. She sure was a looker back in the day but the mirror shows my own image too so I am perfectly fine with the imperfections as we grow older and much happier. I do remember when as a young buck I was dumb enough to be liberal left leaning and as I matured that too has changed drastically. I would have shunned the Gultch back then and now I am constantly searching for it. I do believe this, Too young dumb and too old smart.
    Thanks for posting.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Anytime you can actually see the future, there is a benefit. You just have to know where to find it. Usually it's just the mind extrapolating from the present. There are persons who have trained themselves to utilize this talent and make a living out of accurate prediction.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Life is a roller-coaster. Plenty of ups and downs. We both have strong egos and they would often clash. But the underlying love was like a glue that kept us together.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That only deals with a certain aspect of physical beauty. Then get the big brains involved and they will tell you it's nature's way of telling who will reproduce and provide the best.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    They are beginning to wise up. I believe they call it "plus size." which is just as denigrating as fatso. Just put the sizes down. Women will figure it out.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 7 months ago
    This is weird. Yesterday I recalled the famous saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" for no reason at all while walking through my home en route to the kitchen and while staring at nothing in particular.
    Next day I'm reading this post about beauty.
    Over the years I've lost count of the times I've out of nowhere thought of a movie I've seen before and within three days there it is on TV.
    Me dino wonders if I have a useless ESP gift.
    I call it useless because it lacks any benefit.
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  • Posted by $ Snezzy 8 years, 7 months ago
    Blame, in part, the fashion designers. They seem to want to design for people who look like 12-year-old boys, The models must then look the part. One designer, years ago, was asked by a lady of decidedly feminine proportions why nothing was ever designed in her size. "Madame," he replied, "I am a fashion designer, not a tent-maker!"

    Is it possible, perhaps, that fashion designers do not like women?
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  • Posted by Blanco 8 years, 7 months ago
    While I agree that what makes something beautiful to us is a very complicated and subjective matter, I do believe that there is a mathematical element to physical beauty which makes it much less subjective. This is the "golden mean" that I'm sure most of you are familiar with.


    http://www.intmath.com/numbers/math-o...
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  • Posted by Mamaemma 8 years, 7 months ago
    Herb, I think you have seen that a woman's beauty blossoms when she has the experience of sharing her life with a man who cherishes and admires her. It sounds to me like both you and your wife have loved your life together.
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  • Posted by handyman 8 years, 7 months ago
    Herb: Beauty can also come in the form of words - such as the ones you just expressed. This was a wonderful departure from the great heaps of political babble on this site over the last many months. I hope your wife gets to see what you wrote.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 7 months ago in reply to this comment.
    My wife looks 10 years younger than me. (We're both the same age.) When we were younger, she was mistaken for my daughter. You can't beat good genes.
    "The Enchanted Cottage." I haven't thought of that excellent oldie for many years.
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