What is Beauty?

We don’t live in a monochromatic universe and in our world the white and black spectrum defines the boundaries of all the colors and engulfs the entire variants of their shades. Black that absorbs everything, and there is also white that reflects everything, both together representing balance. Yes, colors are essential to invoke a sensory imagery and add an additional dimension to our overall perception, but differentiating humans on the basis of the color that their melanin pigment adopts, is it justified? Relativity is in everything but applying this principle to beauty, is it necessary?

Resplendent and shiny diamonds that we all adore and on which we spend hefty amounts just so that we can get their ownership had been formed from the darkest of coals in deepest of mines and caves. If not for that darkness there will not be any diamonds that shine forever, yet we only value the varieties of coal based upon its calorific value and we just burn it to get its energy before it transforms into something, into something which it already is from the inside. Coals and Diamonds both are essentially carbon at their core. Diamonds reflect, refract and disperse while coal just absorbs. Also, an off-white pearl is not quite as expensive as the black pearls are. Black pearls because of their rarity are priced at a higher value, the Tahitian oysters named Pinctada Margaritifera that form them are black from the inside, providing the necessary color to it. So, we see that our perception of beauty is subjective and changes in accordance with rarity and color that the other object or a being possesses. All shades, all colors and all tones were created in close relationship with each other and without one the other would have less meaning as their contrasted dependence adds a sense of completeness to their purpose.  Some prefer sweet chocolates some dark chocolates, some prefer espresso shots some prefer cappuccinos, some prefer black tea and some with milk, but these choices are a matter of preference and preference should not apply to beauty. Would you prefer to call a new born baby un-beautiful just because he or she barfs the milk on your shirt? No, I wouldn’t, maybe you can. Would you ever prefer to call a puppy ugly just because he poops around the house? No, I wouldn’t, maybe you can.

The word beauty itself rings the wordings of ‘Be You, T Y (Thank You, oh the abbreviated linguistics)’ if spoken slowly. So, all I would say is that people will always have a preference of choosing and assuming one thing over other because of its color, rarity and melanin pigments. But if you the so-called chosen choice itself have some apprehensions about your own beauty then you can never be a beauty because you are not being you. Both night and day are beautiful but some prefer nights to days that is a different matter. As John Keats said in his poem ‘Endymion’ that ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’, so, do not mind someone else’s preferences, let them not diminish you, let them not tell you that you are not beautiful but you must remember to be you and then you too can be a joy forever and joy my friends is not a preference but an emotional state of existence, capable of moving across species and things.