When you say that something or someone is beautiful, what do you mean?
Can anything be beautiful, or only certain kinds of things and people?
What is it that makes them beautiful?
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Since beauty is subjective, I don’t think of nor refer to people or things as beautiful. I tend to use other adjectives which more accurately describe … for example, an exhilarating sunset, an expressive smile, a tranquil view, etc. I do, on the other hand, use the term beautiful to express my own emotion or responses. Examples of this would be: completion of a project (Beautiful!), a live person finally coming on the line after being put on hold for “an eternity” (Beautiful!), lying down at night after a long day (Beautiful!) In summation, I have not really answered the questions you posed but have instead offered a twist on the use of the word….
When I say something is beautiful, that something had to make me take a breath and hold it for a few seconds. It had to make my heart pound, and my pulse speed up, and maybe bring a tear to my eyes. Now for me, that happens when one of my dogs run up and lay their head on me and look at me with those eyes that seem like big pools of pure love, every time, without fail, when I see a horse running just for the sake of running, and when I’m on a mountain and look out at the trees and the gentle slopes of the surrounding mountains. That’s when I feel like my heart is going to burst just from pure joy.
Beauty awakens the soul to act.
~ Dante Alighieri