When traveling, we tend to focus on beautiful things. A pristine beach, a scenic forest, or a spectacular mountain range next to a clear lake easily catch our eyes. We want to see what’s featured in travel books. These things appeal to the majority of our society and are considered beautiful.
Ultimately, we might post photos on social media, reflecting our society’s value system. These images depict what we’ve learned to find beautiful. We strive for confirmation and recognition through likes and shares, replicating idealized travel images seen multiple times in travel blogs or holiday commercials.
This approach has several problems. Firstly, as mentioned before, the standard of beauty is defined by society. It can fluctuate not only between different societies but also over time. For instance, consider the Venus of Willendorf, a small 25,000-year-old figurine depicting a woman of that era. By today’s standards, she would be considered heavily obese and might not fit into most photo galleries, except those focused on body positivity. However, back then, she was considered beautiful and crafted as a statue. There is no universal standard for beauty, although we’re genetically programmed to find some things more beautiful than others due to evolutionary reasons.
Second problem
Secondly, focusing solely on beautiful things won’t lead to a realistic travel experience. It reinforces an unrealistic view of a location when idealized images are shared. Thirdly, by fixating on beauty, we might miss the beauty in the unbeautiful. Moving away from black-and-white perspectives, we’ll discover that everything has nuances. A place considered ugly by our learned standards might reveal a deeper beauty upon closer inspection.
Consider this article a reminder to travel to locations you wouldn’t normally choose. Visit a waste disposal facility, wander through a former war site, go to a prison complex, observe people at a clay brick factory, or take an overcrowded train. It might be unpleasant—noisy, uncomfortable, or even smelly. Yet, this is where real traveling begins. Life isn’t to be lived like a catalog; it’s realism, encompassing both beauty and unbeauty. And who knows? Going beyond what you’ve learned to like might reveal unexpected beauty.
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