The Eye of the Beholder

Beauty.




What images enter your mind in association with that word? (hold on a second, let me get my music goin here to influence my words and mood in the rest of this blog b/c I feel a long one coming on). Is it sun cresting over the mountains in the distance, shedding its first rays of warmth across the hillsides? The rushing water of a stream meandering through a gorge millions of years old? A magnificent waterfall stumbled upon in the middle of a forest?

Beauty indeed invokes many different images and can take on many connontations, but the beauty I am centering on this latest chapter of thought is the beauty of the opposite sex.

Woman.

The round shape of the eyes, the feminine form invoking urges and stirring chemical reactions with no conscious notice, the defined jaw-line, how the hair frames the face and accents the smile. Oh the smile, it could get a paragraph in itself; when the eyes twinkle and dual fires burn within pupils devouring anything or anyone to haplessly be caught in their gaze.

I have looked into eyes bluer than any sky, darker choclate than a Hershey bar, shades of green to make an emerald look dull, and into eyes so deep and dark it seems the darkness boils. In each one of those moments I was but a prisoner, maybe only for a few seconds but some have stayed with me though it all adding weight to the chains of my past.

Ever notice how time seems to stop and everything else going on around you slows and you're taken into a seemingly inter-planar world where nothing exists but the sparks transferred to one another through the eyes. Those moments define our lives and our very existence. Tell me the last time you lost yourself to someone and said to yourself "I'd do anything for her." It doesn't happen very often and those of us fortunate to have experienced such a feeling should take pride that they indeed felt that sensation, for not ever having that feeling is a far greater crime.

In today's culture we are lambasted on all sides by images of beauty. Skinniness here, there, and everywhere. Long luxuriant curls, straight and elegant dark hair that makes coal look like mud, blonde bombshells, and red-haired women seemingly touched with fire itself assault us on a daily basis. Spanish Senoritas, Italian Bellas, Egyptian godesses, and Russian tennis players...beauty is manifested all over the world.

Every man has a different notion of beautiful. Much speculation has gone into the matter trying to figure out where this image comes from. Some think it is based on our mothers, since they were the first female we were ever in contact with. A lot of other people think it stems from a lot of other scenarios and I don't want to go into all of those. One thing I have noticed above and all, however, is that people are attracted to those who look the most similar to themselves. Just go through the pictures of your friends with their boyfriends and girlfriends and start noticing the similar facial features exhibited by both parties. It's fascinating and of course there are exceptions to the rule. There always are.

I digress. I have always had an interest in the opposite sex. I first mentioned the word boner at school in 3rd grade. The only reason I remember that is the beating issued by my Father when he got done talking to the principal. Seems that trouble and women have been in my blood since birth. I have always been fascinated by the opposite sex, as they are man's greatest enigma; a wonderful enigma full of surprises and discoveries (some found out the hard way). I have never boasted of knowing about women, nor will I ever. But there is one thing I do know. Women are born with the ability to be sexy. Look at a man floundering around on a pole in a bow-tie...not sexy...think of a man trying to seduce with bellydancing...not sexy. No need to go further with that one.

When it boils down to it, I guess I am trying to say that beauty can take many forms. Forrest Gump's mother said life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. I say life takes us down a very winding road filled with pauses, splits, mountains, valleys, deserts and oases. The travellers we meet along the way are our families, our friends, our co-workers, and our pets. Along the way in the box of chocolates we will meet some very fine and exotic people. Most will just be flickers in our memory, while others forever leave an indelible stamp on our souls.

I just hope I have the wisdom enough to tell the two apart, now, and in the future.