Beauty Is Not Skin Deep

You’ve probably all heard the saying

Beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone.

Comical, of course, but not even close to true.

You may be thinking, “what a weird topic to bring up, Keener … what does it have to do with self improvement, or productivity, or anytheeng?”

Good question. It is an odd topic for us, but it is a lead-in to an article I have planned on knowing and living your values. As it turns out, one of the things that I value is beauty. That may sound shallow to many of you, and no doubt I am shallow in some ways.

But beauty means more to me than just “pretty”. To me, beauty is a word for a sort of transcendence. For example, when I look at my dog’s smiling face and his gleaming eyes, I see my best buddy looking pretty as he always does. But, more than that, I see something that transcends the trillions of cells in his body. I see something that causes me to love not only him, but all sentient life.

And, when I look at a picture of a galaxy, which I love to do, I see pretty colors. But, beyond that, I see a potential birthing place for life, a place that may already have fascinating life contained within it. And, I see unfathomable amounts of energy, while realizing that this unfathomable energy is but a minute amount of the energy that is available in a universe that stretches for billions of light years and that could well be contained within an infinite “vacuum” that has birthed and is birthing countless other universes.

It is an odd coincidence that the day that I began thinking about this, a few weeks ago, I came across an article by Alan Alda in The Huffington Post on What is Beauty, Anyway? Within that article, he had embedded the following video of Richard Feynman speaking on this subject:

I feel very much the way that Feynman does. Beauty is a word that can be used in an almost superficial way. But, when I speak of it as one of my values, I am speaking of something that evokes a sense of awe, and even transcendence, within me.

So, I just wanted to share that with you. Maybe it will inspire you to see more “beauty” for a few days, and maybe to enjoy your weekend more.

I also hope it will also get you to thinking about your values. We’ll talk more about those on another day. In the mean time, have a great weekend!