Recently we watched the last 2 chapters in “Ecology of Mind” that focus on Changeability and beauty. Of the two, beauty stuck out to me the most. Beauty is an aspect of society that seems to run everything around us, from humanistic beauty, the aesthetic beauty of the environment around us. The “beautiful” people get special treatment, get the most glamorous jobs, and become the most successful. But what really defines beauty in our society? Who is to say that a rude, monotone, stick thin girl is more beautiful than a girl with a bubbly personality but curvy hips? As a teenage girl I am constantly trying to find the most beautiful hairstyle and most beautiful clothes…. just to be accepted by others and viewed as beautiful by the people around me. In reality, every single person is beautiful in their own way. Each person has a different set of eyes, a different bone structure, and a different skin tone, all of which is unique and beautiful in its own way. In addition to the physical beauty of the people around us, one also needs to consider the beauty of nature, buildings, and society in itself. The flowers we walk by with their colorful silky petals are obviously beautiful, and so is the magnificently designed architectural building behind them, but then again, the flowers’ rich soil, molecular components and chemical structure can also be considered beautiful if one takes the time to think about it and look at it. Beauty is something that I am distinctly aware of and constantly thinking about in my daily life. Bateson used beauty to show people that the world around us is more than just “pretty girls” and “good looking boys”, beauty is about the world we live in and how amazingly things are composed and structured. I am a firm believer that society’s view of beauty has changed and will continue to change, people must break free of that forced viewpoint and find what they believe to be beautiful in their own opinions.
Changeability is another aspect that Bateson talked about in his works. When you think about it, literally everything in the world is changing all the time. On the small scale, bonds are being formed and broken in compounds constantly, and on the large scale, weather and the earth’s rotation and position to the sun is changing every nano-second of every day. Even if someone is referring to a building make of thick concrete and stone, the wind and weather will erode it, changing the outside shape, the inside shape is always changing by the people inside of it, and the foundation upon which it sits is also always changing as the earth itself moves and flexes. Change is what makes the world turn, in one of Gregory Bateson’s quotes he says “Not allowing change is the perfect formula for becoming obsolete”. This quote has stuck with me throughout the semester. I feel like because this is my first semester of college, I am finding out a lot about myself and changing a lot as well. Being thrust into a new environment away from my family and safe home, a person is bound to change and (hopefully) grow up. If a person is in a situation like this and does not change, they are bound to flounder and possibly even fail. People need to change and adapt to their environments, it is what allows them to succeed in life.