Beauty and the Weight of the World

I have always been moved by the story of Atlas holding up the world for all of eternity. Moved by the poignancy and simultaneous tragedy that one could bear the burdens of all, with no respite. There are moments when I feel similarly; fleeting moments when I feel so heavily for the world's problems and sufferings and my own helplessness against them; it seems that I care for an entire entity of beings who have no idea that I even do. I do love humanity as a species, but it is a love song that also bears much frustration (as in the case for any love relationship?).

Of late, I have been feeling rusty, so I will try my best to reinsert myself into the blogging culture, if for nothing else than to oil my wheels and get in touch with myself again.



I have recently begun to see our obsession, attraction, and (for some) enslavement to beauty in a slightly different way. That we are naturally attracted and seek beauty of physical form for a reason other than just pure aesthetics... and that has to do with "the golden ratio", formally expressed by Wikipedia as :

"In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between
the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger
one and the smaller. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant,
approximately 1.6180339887."

This is a ratio that has been found occurring in many natural phenomena such as tree branches and DNA, and has been postulated to be aesthetically pleasing when physically manifested in human faces and bodies. We have long been (even intuitively) aware that proportionality and symmetry of form in humans are prized as more attractive, and there have been studies proposing that faces that better fit this golden ratio are more attractive. But now scientists are also postulating that we perceive better proportionate individuals as more healthy.


This is of interest to me, because if true, it indicates that the search for beauty (which is often criticized as 'superficial') may in fact biologically and fundamentally be an age-old mechanism for the search for a healthy mate -- a rudimentary and innate tool or radar, if you will, for a higher probability of safely delivering our genetic heritage (reproduction). Of course, I am aware that now beauty has evolved and taken on its own distinct roles in society, social strata, culture, arts, self-definition and self-expression, etc, but still it is interesting to note where it probably all began, and that an admiration and thirst for it might not be that superficial after all. What is interesting to note is that nowadays with no shortage of plastic surgeons and an increasingly prolific culture of going under the knife, a "beautiful" person might not be a sign of who's "healthier" after all, but who's got a fatter wallet!