That age old discussion on internal vs. external beauty. How the former should outshine the latter and take precedence in love and life - choosing partners or friends.

Briefly, I acknowledge the importance of internal beauty. Without such a connection to that person, any kind of relationship is not likely to go very far. Maybe that’s part of why some people [think they] fall in love over the Internet - they get to show who they are and not how they look.

It is foolish, though, to disregard external - perceived - beauty entirely. Not only is it the first contact [in many cases] with another person and as such may impact the continuation of the relationship, but personal aesthetics are a major force in our day-to-day activities and our general feeling of accomplishment. How, you might wonder? Most of what motivates us to push forward is pleasure. We derive it in our own ways - work, art, sex. On some idealist plane of thought, all of these should be fields where we can express ourselves compromise-free; in reality, love/sexuality is the one area where we can most readily exercise this freedom. So being in the company of someone that’s aesthetically pleasing to the self is definitely a first step towards romantic happiness. Yes, as the beauty fades or one becomes more used to it in their S.O. the things beyond a pretty face start being more obvious. That should actually happen before beauty expires. Regardless, the shell begins decomposing and it’s the ghost inside one must learn to hold on to. It’s the ghost inside, indeed, that gives and receives love and the only part that vibrates to it.