Why Is There "Beautiful"?

Beautiful,  I submit, is not just an adjective, but something we feel.   Sure, it’s a word that we commonly use to describe something or someone, but beautiful isn’t a typical adjective.  Beautiful is  not like other adjectives.  Adjectives like color, or smell that you use to describe something aren’t really “felt”.  

Beautiful is something that you experience as a positive feeling or “high”.  Beautiful is a nice experience, probably a release of some chemical.  When you see something and experience beautiful, it’s something that you don’t want to look away from or easily stop experiencing.  

Beautiful is similar to the experience men have when they see a pretty girl.  For men, when they see a pretty girl that they are attracted to, there is a tiny chemical released that makes it pleasurable.  Being a man, I can’t really explain it, but the tiny release of oxytocin is a documented fact.  Men are slaves to their chemistry.  I can’t speak for women, but I would imagine it’s similar (scientists say the mechanics are similar).

After experiencing “beautiful” when seeing a sunset and the clouds on my way home from work, I wanted to stop on the freeway and just look.  As usual, my geek came out.  Why do we have the experience “beautiful” as part of our reaction to some things?  I can understand why we receive a chemical high when seeing an attractive girl, survival of our species.   Foods have a color or taste that is pleasurable to us humans so that we are driven to keep eating things that are good enough for our survival so that we make it to the age where we can make more little humans.  

What is the purpose of “beautiful”?  Why is there such pleasure in seeing a sunset, or watching the birds while at the beach, or looking at your favorite artwork.  Why is there such pleasure in just watching beautiful things?  Most things about us are darwinistic in their origin, they help us survive to an age where we can procurate.  What role does or did the feeling of “beautiful” play?  What is the purpose of beautiful.  

Send me your thoughts on this.

-- Chris Claborne

Just Live!

When I wrote my silly little post on Facebook the other day I knew it would never truly carry the context or the totality of my thought.   It was a quick blurb to communicate what I was thinking at that instant to the world.  I was standing outside grilling some meet for dinner and drinking a glass of merlot, my normal Friday routine.  It was cold and very clear.  I looked up at a single star in particular, thinking how small my little planet is from that star's viewpoint (we're probably not even visible, like our problems).   I thought about all of the drama, arguments, and worries that people have.  There are tons of things that people are consumed with every day at work, at home, in our town, within our culture, society, and planet.   Many people are so consumed and absorbed with all of this drama, that they lose perspective to the big picture.  In fact, they spend so much time doing this that at times they forget to just live.