This is getting circular now. That is one of the reasons why I said I didn't find beauty to be a thing of great value to me. It is too individualistic and idiosyncratic on the one hand, and too culturally determined on the other, to be a unifying concept. That doesn't mean I look at it in oppositional terms though, and say that it is divisive.

Now Guest... To tell you the truth, It is not a matter of consequence to anyone but the beholder what they take for 'beautiful'... My feeling about your point of view is probably irrelevent to the intensity of your appreciation of the beauty in your sphere of pursiuts... I have great faith in your quest! Go for it! It's the phrase "beauty is only skin deep..." that is our cultural heritage... (and the rest too '...but ugly is to the bone')... not the various subjective realities of beauty in and of themselves. In matters of improvement, beauty is somewhere nearby... ttr