Vignettes in Aging – Beauty

It’s easy to see the gorgeousness of the classic look of any of Audrey Hepburn’s black and white photos. It’s easy to glimpse the expansive red-spired terrain of the chiseled southwest landscape and have its beauty take your breath away. It’s easy to take in the simple beauty of a single pink rose bud, pristine and accented by a subtle perfume smell.

It’s not quite as easy to see the beauty of the heavily mapped face of an older person, or the stunning comeliness of an obese 20 year old. It’s difficult to appreciate the cool beauty of the lake that has suffered the ravages of drought.

We are taught what beauty is, and sometimes that definition is limited to standards that bare no relation to reality. Is that 20 year old truly not beautiful? Is that shriveled apple doll face of an 80 year old not deserving of our awe of its beauty? Does what sparking water that is left in the lake deserve our disdain instead of our compliments?

How do you define beauty? Do you follow the crowd in beauty’s definition or are you a maverick, seeing beauty in rarer artifact?

And what about yours? Where is the beauty in you? What shines through what perhaps is cellulite, smile wrinkles, and thinning hair? Be kind and expand your definition.