That sounds like a perfect general definition. But what kinds of beauty please, inspire, fascinate or draw you personally? Living in Italy, I can imagine that at least one kind might be the magnificent old architecture.
I live in Naples, Florida, but have been to Italy on many occasions, spent a lot of time there and I love it; I also speak fluent Italian. My favorite getaway (in the whole world) is a particular village on the southern coast, overlooking the Mediterranean. I’d hope to live there one day, but “certain circumstances” there impede that reality. I digress.
I read your Q as a general one, thus my answer was also general; but since you ask, my own idea of beauty encompasses many different things: My wife’s green eyes, our grandchildren, sunsets from my boat, the Old City of Kyoto in spring, the Bavarian Alps, Mozart, Vivien Leigh, and the scent of Magnolias. Not a comprehensive list, mind you, but among the more immediate examples in my head.
I understand your logic - that agreement, pregnancy and death are conditions that are either so or not.
But this convention of seeing them as black or white absolutes does not take variables into account. One can have degrees of intensity of positive emotion about an agreement. Does pregnancy begin when the ova is fertilized, when the zygote implants, when one or two periods are missed, when two blue bars show up on the test, or when the lower abdomen swells slightly, urine increases, and breasts feel too tender? Is death only an arbitrarily decided moment established by legal and medical protocols, or is it a variably subtle or obvious, or sudden or slow process depending on conditions?
Real beauty comes from within. The basis for inner beauty is having love for God and fellow man. (Matthew 22:37-39) Love of God leads us to want to be the kind of person that pleases him.. such love moves us to speak about him to others, helping them, in turn, to get to know their Creator. Isaiah 52:7! Inner beauty is ageless, and will improve with time. For many good reasons the exhortation found in the bible is to focus on the inner person, "the secret person of the heart." (1peter 3:3,4)
Hubby and I are on the road in an RV for more than 20 years. We are not sightseeing cities or visiting Museums - we are forever fans of Nature in its beauty. All categories apply, like sunsets, mountains, lakes, forests, shorelines, cloud formations - you name it. Our pictures of it hardly show a person.....For me Nature includes animals. Getting very emotional about beauty means observing wild animals in their natural surroundings.
My hubby and I chat about it sometimes, asking all the what ifs. We have a lot of natural wilderness with native animals close around us... but the variety of nature is such a wonderful thing... definitely very tempting to travel to see more of it.
I find real beauty comes from within relating to people. How they treat others, their behaviors, compassion, acceptance, kindness, caring, and a loving person makes the most beautiful person. When it comes to nature, natural waterfalls, springs, mountains, the wilderness, oceans, an ocean life are beautiful.
inky 