“A look which reveals inward stress adds more beauty to the face, no matter how much tragedy and pain it bespeaks; but the face which, in silence, does not announce hidden mysteries is not beautiful, regardless of the symmetry of its features.”*
Apart from making you stronger, do “bad” life experiences also add beauty to your face?
Well according to Plato’s theory of Forms, particulars have the properties they have because they have Form-copies derived from the Forms which are those properties. What makes x beautiful, for instance, is its having something which is beautiful. This something can either be a Form or Form-copy, for these alone are beautiful. Therefore beauty itself alone is beautiful; other things acquire their beauty in virtue of partaking in what is beautiful.
And so it is probable that “bad” life experiences constitute what is beautiful. Because the pain they cause is the breaking of the shell that encloses our understanding; which is why we emerge stronger.
*From Broken Wings by Kahlil Gibran
who is kahlil gibral?
Kahlil Gibran was a great Lebanese poet/philosopher/painter/writer. For more info go to http://www.gibranarchive.com