Have you ever watched a sunset? Have you ever sat outside and gazed upon the brilliant red and orange rays of sunshine (that make for perfect selfie lighting)? Sometimes the sky transforms into a magical, blueberry smoothie mix of blues, pinks, and purples. The pearl-shaped orb of light slowly settles down as your eyes adjust gradually and perfectly to the new night sky. Aren’t sunsets just so beautiful? Who wouldn’t find them beautiful, especially after that poetic description?
The answer is simply that there is someone out there who doesn’t like sunsets. They might even find them *gasp* ugly. Even if you don’t personally know someone who doesn’t enjoy this daily display of art in the sky, there’s probably at least one person on this Earth who doesn’t. The same thing applies for widely accepted “beautiful” things such as blooming roses, clear oceans, peacock feathers, and diamonds. So does that mean these things aren’t, in fact, beautiful? Can something be beautiful even if there’s one person who disagrees? Is beauty a democratic vote kinda thing? Can beauty and ugliness exist simultaneously? What the heck even is beauty at this point?
Not to sound cheesy, but beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Each and everyone of us has a different idea of what it means to be beautiful. This applies to both outward appearances, whether it be of people or nature or whatever, and inward appearances, such as someone’s personality. If you don’t fit someone else’s image of “beauty”, that doesn’t make you any less beautiful than you feel. On the flipside, have you ever been complimented on your appearance when you actually didn’t feel very good-looking that day? It can seem hard to believe in the moment, but that’s just because we really do all have different opinions on what beauty is. And the opinions on beauty that matter most to us should be our own.
So next time you catch a glimpse of the sunset, try thinking about why YOU think it’s beautiful.
