How Beautiful Are You?

   ...or, Is Keira Knightley the new Audrey Hepburn?

Or is such a question hopelessly outdated? Can we really compare the quality of beauty of a woman like Marilyn Monroe to that of Grace Jones? (Both being powerful symbols of not just beauty but sexiness and sensuality for good measure) or maybe even Angelina Jolie to Dolly Parton, (albeit a younger version of Dolly, bless her little pink rhinestone heart).

 We can go on and on about comparisons between beautiful women but eventually we have to come back down to the bottom line - what does beauty mean.  Does it have a tangible presence beyond our vanity driven world and if so what is the meaning of something as nebulous as a perfect face, body and so on? And should we subscribe to such narrow views as propagated by Hollywood and celebritydom.

Despite what some might want to get off on, in my world at any rate, beauty is an expression of an idealised state of mind and not just about a Marilyn nose, Joliesque lips, or a Knightley body. It has something to do with how you walk, the things you think about, the things you say and the light that sparkles in a person's eyes that says, 'somebody is home' and maybe, importantly, beauty is being able to appreciate and to express something that connects you and me to everything else. Therefore beauty can be seen in context of wider circles and not just our own personal circle of vanity for 1.

Beauty is ephemeral and because of its nature, it changes like the seasons. However, it is just that we sometimes can't seem to change and adapt to new models of beauty when life changes. Beauty never goes away, it just changes its perspective so we can learn to appreciate it in many different ways.