So I was thinking, is beauty overrated? For example, if I purchase a piece of furniture, say a table, and it is modern, impeccable, beautiful if you will…. is this more valuable than an older piece that has some dings and scratches on it? Is it possible that the slightly damaged piece that withstands the test of time is more beautiful than the shiny, new piece?
My car is over ten years old, and had stuff falling off, but the thing runs. Is it more valuable to trade it in for something shiny rather than hold onto old reliable, until I get everything out of it that I can?
All of us, even those who by society’s standards might be considered to possess beauty will grow old, clench wrinkles into ourselves, and lose our hair. Is all that we have gained through our experiences in life more beautiful than the grace and vigor we had in our youth?
© 2026 – SoulSequel
18 responses to “How important is beauty in a relationship, a home, life in general?”
In furnishings, I go for practical, but I also love the older pieces that have meaning in my life. I have a table that was made to hold a lamp and be in a corner. It has a lower shelf on it, and I used to sit on that shelf when I was a baby. I love that table. My dining room table once belonged to my Grandma and many children sat on the pedestal legs. It needs to be refinished. I love it for all it has been through. Then, there is the impractical Pirate Ship in the dining room. It is a cat lounge for the cats and we decorate it for Christmas. I never want to part with it. Immortal Pirate built it.
@ladybarbara beautiful! I think you should keep it decorated all year!
@Scarlett2
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@Scarlett2 The Pirate Ship is a cat lounge, except in the Christmas season when it is decorated. The gifts are placed in the cargo area and the cats hate this whole Christmas thing the humans do. The cats are very annoyed with the decorations and lights. To keep them up all year would piss off the cats and it would become tiring as a decoration. It would be boring. The whole idea of deckside dining is to make the ship look like a pirate ship. It has a Pirate Captain and deckhands working on the deck. There are spaces for cats to lounge and it is much more enjoyable as a Pirate Ship. Immortal Pirate’s favorite cat gets up in the Captains wheel area to be able to beg pieces of Immortal Pirate’s dinner. When the ship is decorated, there is a Christmas tree and a “Santa Claus” crowding the Captain’s deck —- making it off limits to the cat. To keep the decorations on it would be annoying to all of us.
@ladybarbara BORDERLINE HOARDING
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One might see an old chair as junk, another sees it as a priceless antique. Yes we all get older with time, I on the other hand am an antique already…lol
Psychologically, beauty relates to perfection of an ideal. But each individual gets to some degree, to decide what that ideal is. It can just as easily be beauty of function, endurance, reliability, steadfastness etc.
Physical beauty is attractive but fleeting. One blemish undoes it. Time utterly undoes it at its most superficial level. Beauty of form or function, the same. Infidelity “mars the beauty” of trust, reliability, steadfastness.
So I think the value of beauty, is in the “perfect” ideal that it represents. And that as our ability to see and interact with beauty, the more expansive that world of beauty (perfect ideal) becomes for us.
Within Native Shamanism is the idea that all places of stunning beauty are “spirit spots”: spots that make one pause and more deeply contemplate the ideal of perfection.
And that is a very beautiful place to be, psychologically and spiritually. It’s a place of awe and wonder, and contemplation of possibilities. And perhaps even a place of . . . forgiveness? One can forgive the desert so to speak, for being devoid of water (not a perfect ideal) but for the beauty that is uniquely present.
One can “forgive” that a lone beautiful flower is in a dumpy intercity vacant lot and still pause and ponder a glimpse of perfection.
One can overlook a scar or blemish on a loved one.
I think beauty gives far more than our eyes, something to feast upon.
And beauty of spirit perhaps nourishes the very spirit of everyone around who still allows themselves to ponder beauty.
@griz Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly is to the bone…
@immortal_pirate not a nice way to talk about your girlfriend
@Tits McGee When I want your opinion, I’ll read your entrails.
@immortal_pirate AGAIN, SENILITY SETTING IN.
@Tits McGee I’m sorry that you suffer from senility, it must be terrible being you. You probably suffer from erectile dysfunction as well, but if you don’t…go fuck yourself.
@immortal_pirate SUCH ANGER. FOR SOMEONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE AN IMMORTAL, YOU SURE HAVE SO MUCH ANGER IN YOUR SOUL. I AM SORRY YOU HAVE ANGER, HATRED AND RACISM IN YOUR HEART. I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU.
IT’S TOO BAD YOU CANNOT HAVE ANY EMPATHY.
PITY
@griz I like this beuutiful writering. More please. Maybe I am biased towards beauty.
@Scarlett2
I appreciate that; but it come when it comes!
Photography was my first serious artistic endeavor and I’m to the point now where I can probably wrestle a beautiful (or at least meaningful) picture out of a dung-heap! But the most beautiful pictures just sort of “happen”. (See Christmas Sunset pic below!)
I think beauty generates bias — both for and against. The former is healthy. The latter leads people to destroy and devalue — likely because they are psychologically at odds with “perfect ideals”.
“All of us, even those who by society’s standards might be considered to possess beauty will grow old, clench wrinkles into ourselves, and lose our hair. Is all that we have gained through our experiences in life more beautiful than the grace and vigor we had in our youth?”
I do not age. Been saying this on this site, since 2010. Still not the biggest evidence for that. What does 48 look like. I have to show the handful of people close to me ‘what 48 looks like’, and even then, they can not consciously process it.
Because, it is impossible.
People can’t believe in the impossible.
But, the irony is… I have to get them to believe to heal them. I can reverse aging. I can reverse better then that. But, these days, they are dark.
So, each year that passes, I get closer and closer to my objective.
Sadly, I see, it is a choice people make. They choose to age and die. If they hear my story, anyway. Because, they can only reverse their situation if they can believe me. And, who can believe this.
I can. But, I have seen things, and been places, they can not understand. They are in the world. I am far, far down ‘the rabbit hole’. Where I am, these things are normal. But, where they are… it is an impossible abyss to cross.
So, a blessing, and a curse.
But, each year that passes, I get closer. To getting enough people to believe, and be where I am. So, I do not have to do it by myself.
@five2one People are like dollar bills…when you’re born you have smooth skin like a crisp off the press dollar. As you age, you take on a few creases, a wrinkle here and a wrinkle there…until finally you begin to fade, look tattered and torn, and ultimately worn out by time.
Unless of course you’re me…an immortal…lol
@immortal_pirate Shhhhh. God damned it.
Hehehehe… We are so bad… :-)