Beauty is essentially a form of energy, something that radiates from a fine example of
absolutely anything, whether a delightful taste or smell, or a gorgeous sight.
This energy is in effect a form of information, nature's bar code telling us how healthy,
that attitude is, because health-bringing things increase the likelihood that we and our
genes will survive.
Harvard phychologist Nancy Etcoff observes that, with this vital equation very much in mind,
our brains behave like a highly sensitive radar constantly hunting a signal.
If we're shown the photograph of a face, it takes us less than a fifth of a second to make a
judgement of its beauty.
Much of the language of this energy is hard-wired and universal.
Even three month-old babies have been shown to prefer gazing at conventionally beautiful
faces, and adults from diverse ethnic cultures can all agree on who is exactly how
good-looking in other populations.
Experimental studies have also established that the active ingredients include symmetry, order,
proportion and balance. Since beauty is so powerful and important, we can be thankful that there
are many ways to be beautiful, and very many sources. And though we most readily think of
experiencing that energy through our five physical senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and
smell, other dimensions are even more potent. For example, there is movement-which can be the
internal, kinaesthetic sense of our own bodies in dance or sport; or the thrill of seeing an art
or craft well performed. Consider, too, how ideas, insights, and solutions, can be deemed
beautiful. Among scientists, Einstein's Theory of Relativity is unanimously praised for its
extraordinary beauty. Yale's David Gelernter, a professor of computer science, has argued
convincingly that "lust for beauty" has driven the great technological discoveries. It is no
accient, he would claim, that Mitchell's Spitfire, with its Merlin engines and distinctive
wings, could help win a war while also seeming wonderful to the eye and ear.
And just as the plan for a bank robbery, a bridge, or a computer program can all work
beautifully, so can a whole personality. We know from the studies of many lifetimes that humans
find a balance of loving and confidence and kindness and humour to be highly attractive and
very healthy qualities.
Yet, the greatest source of beauty, for the sheer intensity and volume of positive emotion
it brings to our lives, is the beautiful relationship--the one in which we can thrive and
flourish and grow beyond ourselves. This fertile bond can exist between two living things, or
a person and a place, or a person and a skill, and the world becomes only more beautiful the
more deeply we understand it. Therefore, we will find profound happiness in narturing and
appreciating diverse beauties in whatever ways we can.