Deep Spirits

This was a question that circulated in an office I worked at several years ago.

The question, directed at women, was “When people talk about you, would you rather they say you are attractive or you are intelligent?”

I was surprised at the answers.

What do you think the answer would be?

Kris

Well, the way you ask the question, I am guessing most wanted to be seen as beautiful, is that correct? Considering how much the world pays attention to looks nowadays it is not such a surprising answer.

Then again, what is beauty?
When a teenager is beautiful they are like a blank slate.
There is no character to their beauty yet.
With time and age their character begins to show what is on the inside. So, if they are ugly on the inside, they turn uglier the older they get. If they are beautiful on the inside, they turn only more beautiful with age.
However, inside beauty is not only intelligence. It is kindness and grace and many other things.

So, coming back to your question, strictly intelligence vs. beauty, one could answer it with "Beauty", but not necessarily referring to outer beauty.
What do you think?
:)

Sabina

So... since I am not a woman I don't have to answer, right?

The question is strange, as one does not necessarily exclude the other. Attractive person can be intelligent and intelligent person can be attractive. But both shouldn’t necessary have inner beauty and therefore something most important will be missing. Knowing what preferable values are today, she probably answered "attractive", based on that you were surprised with an answer.
But, the whole question is interesting because of further speculation about the subject.
I find Sabina’s whole description very nice and therefore Kudos...
I would say that inner beauty is that what would be the right answer, at least in the case if I would be asked. Inner beauty is reflected in outer look as well.
Since I was a student I have heard a little story about the beauty of a woman, eventually originated from Einstein. When asked about how he would value beauty of a woman , he eventually answered:" The outer beauty is zero, intelligence is zero, different talents are zeros, kindness is zero, persistence is zero,... all other characteristics are zero . Person who has inner beauty gets 1 at the first position which makes valuable and visible all others too.

What would be your definition of inner beauty?
How do you recognize a person who has it?

Mirjana

Remember, it is very simple to change an ugly person
into a very beautiful person, IF YOU merely Change
your definition of Beautiful.