What is beauty?
Something seen, or heard, or felt?
When experienced, what is the result? It draws us in, engenders pleasure. There is a physiological alchemy to it that transforms us. We may leave the beauty behind (quit the museum, turn off the music), but the sense of it is captured in memory that can be called upon at anytime.
That feeling, defined: Appreciation. The sensation most like love. Response is visceral when we look out over the Grand Canyon, examine a Renoir, listen to Beethoven (or Bob Dylan), or hold a child in our arms. But the simple memory of these things also calls forth feeling. The feeling of beauty is what changes a person. The feeling of love, as well.
If beauty is feeling, and appreciation closest to love, one can intuit the importance of beauty in our lives. And the definition of beauty is as diverse as those who appreciate it.
The object matters not. The feeling is the thing. Feeling is always the thing. Universally available at anytime, anyone has the freedom to go there. There is a certain liberty attached to beauty and one’s sense of it. We are all free to appreciate whatever we wish.
We need beauty as much as we need love. We need love as much as we need freedom. A equals B equal C.
Accesible anytime. Transformational, all.