beautiful things

curiously, the last movie i watched from my netflix queue before canceling my membership was a quiet and dignified movie called venus. the film, which portrays the oft-excruciating pursuit of a very young lady by an old man, also includes one of the best lines to ever show up on screen:

for many men, a woman's body is the most beautiful thing a man will ever see.

i've wondered about this little perception a lot recently as i've spent a lot of time shopping over the past couple weeks. normally, when i go into retail-therapy mode, i look at what i need -- new jeans, a pair of brown shoes. and so i bought those. but more recently, i've just wanted things i thought beautiful. so that includes a crystal glass pitcher, a set of votives, and, shortly in the future, candlesticks and various stemware (perhaps some nambe flatware too).

among people i know, i have a reputation for being, well, sort of femme. and i wonder silently if it's not this attachment to other beautiful things that makes people wonder about my orientation; why it is that this sharing of the space normally occupied by beautiful women with other objects is so foreign to men. to that question, i have no answer.

it's difficult to derive the actual value i net from these things. but they bring a smile to my face, albeit an expensive one, and all smiles have some worth.