Exploring Armstrong’s statement, “To regard beauty as a luxury adornment or a social signifier was to miss the true potential of the experience,” means that if one were to focus on their social status and the possession of objects, they are missing the whole point of beauty. He explains that beauty is to, “…elevate the soul,” (5) as it reaches to create peace between people. Schiller goes into context when he talks about the two drives of a human’s mind for gratification. The first is, the ‘sense’ drive which, “…lives in the moment and seeks immediate gratification. It craves contact and possession,” (2) where the second drives focuses on ‘form’ and is, “…the inner demand for coherence over time, for abstract understanding and rational order” (2). As this drive is mainly based around leaving one’s own experiences to discover universal ones. Schiller wants to get across that human nature has two senses of longing, which in turn both balance each other out to flow in “harmony.” If one drive is too dominant, then we would become dry and callous.

I view beauty as something that is felt organically inside you in a particular moment. I also think beauty is something that can bring joy or happiness to your life. It can also be the feeling when your heart gets all soft or even if you feel some sort on contentment, safeness, or even calmness to something. I think society sees beauty as basing their views off of other people. I feel like society views beauty as in strictly body types or perfect relationships. A quote that stuck out to me in Armstrong’s essay about beauty was, “When we find something beautiful, we are called towards a vision of harmonious perfection. This is not only a quality in the object, but a longing in ourselves” (3). This quote stands out simply because beauty reaches the soul of everyone in their own special way. And that is something that I didn’t quite realize until I read this. Beauty is felt with the heart. Everyone experiences beauty, which connects us. Yet, everyone finds beauty in their own way and it speaks to everyone different and that in itself makes life beautiful.