The Way To Beauty
Mike Kraus
By definition, beauty is “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.” For me, this answer only raises more questions. What are those qualities and can they be quantified? Why is it pleasurable? What are those impacts on the logical mind and/or the emotional spirit? Is it a part of nature or a human invention? Understanding beauty seems to require a knowledge or a specific set of skills. These skills have been called inspiration, imagination, and creativity.
The Opposite of Beauty
To know beauty, we must understand the misery of ugliness. What is the cost of boring suburbs, ugly strip malls, and a hideous highway? Science tells us the price of unpleasantness. A dull office environment leads to absenteeism and higher turnover. Traffic noise raises blood pressure and heartbeats; impacting related diseases. A lack of access to nature decreases a person’s attention span and an increase in local crime. A school curriculum lacking arts decreases grades in all subjects along with a higher dropout rate. Unattractive surroundings have a direct correlation to depression, obesity, depersonalization…
