It was a normal day on UJ Soweto campus,
the only thing different was that group of dynamic young friends going around
and asking questions to people about "beauty".
It was quite unexpected that something we
talk about every day and even use as primary bait for some
people, could not be explained and answered to so easily.
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| They gave all sort of answers about beauty. it was funny and thoughtful. |
Beauty cannot be touched, I always say. It
is maybe something we associate to some proportion of perfect adjustment
between different parts of the body. However, if we base our understanding of
beauty on that sole basis, we would probably shorten our views and
understanding of some many things besides beauty being only a perfectly
assembled body; and there is nothing perfect in this world.
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| Destiny at work? beauty is also dedication |
It does pain to see and find out that
many people cannot defined what is to be beautiful. It seemed like a question everyone
should be able to answer to, instinctively even.
So then, what is beauty? How do you feel
beautiful? What do you feel or think is being beautiful? I asked some people on
the UJ Soweto campus from staff to student, from lecturers to cleaners. It was just
like “eureka”, a discovery.
So what is beauty? A state of mind, a
state of body or maybe a way of living? A friend of mine told me that she
believed that beauty was the good from the inside. It is true that I cannot
through everything that everybody said; nonetheless, the outside beauty is only
the reflection of what you really look like from the inside.
Mum Rae, as we call her, spoke about
beauty on a transcended level, linking it to how we are created in the image of
God. “What God sees is always perfect and what he does is even more,” she
added. Spiritual beauty I called it.
As platonic as always, some people attach beauty to proportion, to what the public sees; literately, nice shape, nice make up, etc… and it is the base of beauty, that cannot be denied.
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| My lecturer Mrs Leoni spoke of authenticity and drive |
I had my lecturer relating beauty to being
authentic to yourself and perseverance. Someone else told me about beauty being
the sum of imperfection making you perfect. It was probably the most thought
out answer I got as it has taken aback.
There is so much that can be said about
beauty. At some point, I thought the universally accepted answer to beauty when
everyone would agree that someone really looked beautiful when one would turn his/her head around to look at that person.
I now believe that being beautiful is
simply to accept who you are beyond the how you look like. If beauty was just physique
then age surely does wipe it out as we always say “I used to be pretty”.
No matter how you look you are beautiful
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| Sabelo told me a lot about being beautiful |
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| Lindelwa and Lebo speaks about beauty |
