On Beauty

Ugly Persists, but Beauty is Everywhere By Jason Gileno

"Die while you're young and still beautiful."
-Martha Graham

      Recently, I was sipping red wine at a kitchen table across from an acutely beautiful young woman, who asked me whom I considered to be "the most beautiful woman ever." I suggested "Angela", the object of anomalous desire played by actress Mena Suvari in the film American Beauty. It was a feeble attempt at humor. I admit it. From that point, our conversation waned and soon after, I found myself in a cab, mumpishly giving the driver directions to my neighborhood. Enclosed in my own sullenness and rankled by rejection, I considered the puerility of the last few minutes of our discourse.

Who is the most beautiful women ever... what an inane question! Broad and subjective to be sure, with nothing but indefinite answers. Immaterial... Unoccupied... Cryptic... Conjecture!

On Beauty - Continued >>