Beautism

Yes, yes. What the heck is this other -ism. And while, as discussed in the main argument no option is better than any other, there are a lot of reasons why it became my decision.

First we should clarify, that there is already a loose definition for Beautism which is amusingly criticized here, but in this case we are redefining it.

As a side note, I see the irony of this site being super bland at this stage, but content is king, and CSS styling can come later.

Definition

Hereby Beautism is defined as the philosophy that seeks beauty in life (pretty obvious). And naturally, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Bee Holder thereby absolutely subjective. However, parts of this write-up will explore exactly what should be considered beautiful and what should not, which once more is subjective.

So this being only 1% of an answer, there is a lot to still uncover until this 'philosophy' actually yields a helpful value system to base our decisions on.

Beauty needs Ugly

While reading "The book of joy", I opened up a chapter named "Nothing beautiful comes without suffering." The title somewhat struck me, as I took a moment to consider if this is actually true or there are instances of sufferless beauty. I thought, as the book had earlier mentioned, of child-birth, re-union, achievement, unity, support. But also more trivial things such as a stunning building, gigantic mountain, or pretty person. Now, as "black implies white" , or even more so as white requires black, beauty needs non-beauty (ugliness).

And even more so, I would postulate the breadth between beauty and ugly is relatively fixed — the most beautiful thing and ugly thing you know are always equally extreme to each other and don't depend on their absolute values.

Another important thought is that beauty, while intrinsic, is not only shifting in it's perception, but you can also redefine what is beautiful. As a kid, you may have thought sitting at the adult table and just talking is boring and unenjoyable, yet by now you believe, given the right people and topics, having a thoughtful conversation is something very lovely and meaningful.

Implication

Now that we are exploring why Beautism should be our go-to solution, let's go through what Beautism implies.

Now, embracing axiom 5, we can search within ourselves. The first step is analyzing our current behavior and overtly asking ourselves if we can honestly tell ourselves we find this part of our lives beautiful.

And this is incredibly tough. You need to be truthful and admit to yourself that there are parts of your behavior which you cannot argue to be beautiful. Let's walk through some (non-personal) example.

You don't put (enough) effort into your relationship.
You are not reaching out to your family.
You only call up your friends when you need them.
You keep superficial conversations with people you don't care about.
You betray others to get ahead in some way.
You lie to take the easier way out.

If you cannot find a single pattern here that you agree to not be beautiful but do nevertheless, then either you are not truthful or can already be quite proud of yourself - you already sought out a life you yourself can consider beautiful.

But for those who are already proud of themselves to not disappoint themselves in others, should reality check if they are not disappointing themselves:

You consume substances to escape reality.
You constantly watch movies/series that don't matter.
You spend a lot of time on social media going through obsolete content.
You don't fully believe in yourself.
You are hiding who you really are for the world.
You are chasing something only because others are.
You suppress a dream because you are scared of taking the leap.
You keep in your routine to not face the unknown.
You keep yourself busy so you don't have to contemplate what you actually want.
You aim low so you cannot say you failed.

The reason I thought about listing those things, is because it shows you have a compass pointing you in the direction of what a beautiful use of your time is. And yes, this arguably also is a psychological mirror, but the point to note here is, that with all of those decisions, you are using your time in a way, that you cannot make a case for being good for you.

Now, it's not a clear-cut answer either. Your job might not be 'beautiful', and while maybe you should do something about it, there can still be a case for it if it supports your daughter living a exuberant life from the proceeds.

This is the temporary end of this essay, but more is yet to come.