Tuesday, 2026-05-26

Touching beauty Conveyed with foreign words Will I be enticed?

First of all, I don't really know what a peony is. I've almost certainly seen or interacted with them, but I'm drawing a blank. Here's a picture, in case you're as clueless as I am:

I don't think I could point this flower out in a row of flowers. I don't think I could place what it smells like. I certainly have no mental image of this flower, but I've also found in recent years that I have some degree of aphantasia.

All that processing led me to reflect on moments when somebody tries to describe beauty, but uses unfamiliar language. On one hand, it sounds nice and I'm happy it happened to you, but on the other, what are you even talking about?

That tension made me realize that there are myriad factors that would lead me to either buy in to what is being described, or dismiss it: My mood, the conveyor's emotion, the description medium, the steps of similarity (i.e. I know a peony is a flower, I know what a rose is so I'll just substitute it for that mentally), and much more.

Once you've identified all the layers, you realize that it's a pitch. The comparison sickens me, but it's easy to wrap my head around.