WHAT EXACTLY IS BEAUTIFUL?

Have you ever seen anything that took your breath away? Something so beautiful that you don't even know where to begin to describe it? A beauty that makes you feel. What about a sound? Have you ever heard something so great that you were brought to tears? A sound that you wanted to hear over and over again and would never get tired of it. I will not go into touch and taste for obvious reasons.

I thought about what it was that I found beautiful, and what sounded so pristine to me that it would stop me in my tracks. Of course there are the obvious, a smiling baby, a lovers look, a beautiful person, artwork. That is too easy to answer. Be original, think outside of the box. Make it difficult to grasp so that no one else would understand your reason. I chose the UDJAT. It is the most perfect symbol, with it's lines and measurements that are purposeful. It, of course, has meaning to many but to me it is just one of the most beautiful pieces of perfection out there. It saddens me when I see someone wearing this symbol as a tattoo and the artist doesn't understand that each stroke, each  movement of this symbol has a meaning, the exact measurements are what this symbol means. To get it right, you can't copy it from a picture. You have to use mechanical drawing skills. It is one of the hardest things to draw, yet one of the most serene images ever drawn. Pure beauty, not the kind that you have to fix up, not the kind of beauty that is an occurrence. Babies of any kind are adorable, a fashion model is pretty, a person is attractive, a painting is flawless or flawed to a degree that it is pleasant to your senses. I just measure beauty in a way that makes sense to me. Of course, by this time next year the beauty may change.

I have a story about a sound. I know it is weird to try and explain something so intangible, but just bare with me for a minute. There are some people that can sing and make you feel good. Most likely one of your favorite artists, someone paid extraordinary amounts of money to sing into a microphone in a studio somewhere and let others alter or tweak, just a bit to perfect the song. I know that the sound of hearing a baby laugh is a great sound, I know this. Some may say the sound of thunderstorms or even rain is the best sound of all. I have to agree, all of those sounds are nice and pleasant to my ear. But have you ever witnessed a most beautiful sound? I have. Now, I realize witnessing a sound does not even make sense, but hang on and let me explain. When you are shocked, sitting in a pew at church and someone stands in front of the congregation and begins to sing, at first you think, okay she can sing. But when the sounds that are made reach your body and all you can do is cry and every hair on your body has decided to stand up for this music, then you know you have witnessed the most beautiful sound in the world. It rarely happens, and it doesn't have to be in church either, but when it gets there, when it is the only thing you want to hear and it saddens you that it has faded then you know you have witnesses sound. Sure, I love rain and thunderstorms, little animals, smiling babies, a beautifully laid out place setting, even a great art piece. Beauty to me, though, is intangible. If you can touch it then it can be marred.