The perception of beauty

When I see a beautiful woman (for I am a man, and that is how things go with me) - someone who is beautiful to me, rather than someone who is simply beautiful by virtue of consensus amongst a group of people - the effect upon me is singular. It does not happen a lot, and to be sure if it did I might live very long, but more likely I will die young (I have nevertheless done well, I am not exactly a teenager anymore).

This perception, which at first impression appears to be entirely superficial in addition to being entirely subjective, soon proves to be of consequence beyond its subjective origins. It is an experience that, if drawn to its conclusion - if one had the ability (and contrary to what any delusions of grandeur might suggest, that's usually not the case) to draw it to its conclusion before perishing one's persona - usually takes one beyond its original context in order to realise the associated ideation.

The resulting evolution is neither good or bad, that is to say one cannot guarantee that the effects of beauty, drawn to their conclusions, will be to everyone's liking. If one is able to survive the movement that it initiates, then the ripples of one's actions will go beyond subjective boundaries into other people's lives and may or may not be to everyone's liking.

But here is nothing new and the same can be said for countless other human actions. What makes it different is the experience of a certain absolute necessity in beauty - a compulsion and obligation that does not permit a failure to respond. The failure to respond ensures that there will be no second chance. Again, that cannot be evaluated in terms of good and bad - it should be seen as a call to respond, to behave differently than usual and yet with complete authenticity, because in the experience of beauty there is the opportunity to become. What person knows how he or she will act? Whoever says "I do" has either lived what can only be lived once at a time, which is impossible to predict, and therefore will be surprised. It is a strange law. Therefore, one can only say "I know how I will not act" by virtue of knowing how one is evolved at that point - and that is already an achievement.

What it is further possible to say, knowing that one's subjective perception is of more importance than any socially agreed upon criteria, is that even if there is reciprocation - as from another person, the beautiful woman, who may find you attractive in turn - it is possible to say, not unlike Sartre says of being (self-knowledge does not coincide with being), that eventually knowing the other person does not coincide with beauty.

That knowing the other person does not coincide with beauty.