igloo of thought

what is beauty?
i often ask that to the committee of thinkers around the conference table of my brain, and i've yet to receive an answer agreed upon by all. "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," says the philosphy-parroting idealist. "beauty is a set of cultural standards that include face shape, eye size, body proportions, etc. and are genetically and societally imprinted in our brains as methods of natural selection," says the logical, the psychologist. "true beauty is found within," says the existential optimist. "everyone is beautiful in some way, whether inside or out or both, therefore beauty does not truly exist, it is only found in differing regions from person to person," says the equivocating diplomat. "beauty is a projection of what we wish we could be ourselves," says the rest of my brain, so i guess i have to go with that as the majority.
sometimes i wish i was beautiful in the regular way (whether i'm beautiful in any other way is also up for a rough argument). but i was remembering something tonight. once, when hanging out with two of my very best guy friends, they told me how they rated people out of 10 based on looks and personality, respectively. at first i was appalled that they would vocalize private opinions so willingly, but they offered to rate me. wary of obligatory grade-inflation, i nevertheless gave them the go-ahead. after a few minutes of conference and a threat from me that if they weren't honest i would know, they returned to me with the results. i had earned a 7 in looks, (that was definitely inflated) and a 9 in personality.
i'd never recieved a better compliment.