Life is Beautiful! (for whom, when, where, why?)
When I read or hear the classic phrase “life is beautiful!”, I’m sorry to admit it, but I feel a certain annoyance. I believe this also happens to those who hear or read this phrase at times when life is not at all beautiful. In my case, however, the annoyance is not necessarily due to this reason. Even if life is beautiful for me, when I hear someone saying “life is beautiful!” I feel equally annoyed. Equally, however, it would annoy me to hear or read that “life is ugly!”.
What disturbs me is the generalization, that “life is beautiful”, which applies to any other definition, for example: “life is sacred”, “life is horrible”, “life is a gift” , etc.
If someone says “life for me right now is beautiful (or horrible, a gift, a hell, etc.)” then in my view it is very different. This for me implies the acceptance that this experience can change or that for others it may be different.
As a result, I feel comfortable and can share that for me right now life is “equally beautiful” or “horrible”, “so-so”, etc.
And if that person also gives me specific information about the nature of his beautiful or bad life experience, it becomes even more interesting. In this case the person tells me both the quality and the details of his experience, and this allows me to expand my awareness, making improvements and corrections, discovering new points of view, being supportive, etc.
But if someone just says that “life is beautiful!” And this is not my experience, it may mean that there is perhaps something wrong with me, that I should agree or be quiet to avoid arguments, or start a discussion to show that “life is not necessarily beautiful, that it could be horrible”, or I could even claim that “life is horrible!” with an opposite generalization, and therefore perhaps arguing or even worse.
In short, all this because of a generalization!
So, life is beautiful (or ugly, etc.) for who, when, where, why?