During perhaps the middle of the year 2016, the word "aesthetic" made its way into colloquial and slang use. Unlike most other slang terms, it was, for the most part true to its original meaning. A well-put together outfit was an aesthetic; flowers were an aesthetic; a hairstyle was an aesthetic; a relaxing color scheme was an aesthetic; neat notes were an aesthetic; a minimalist pattern was an aesthetic. The bottom line? Anything pleasing to the eye was an aesthetic.
Perhaps the use of one word as a catch-all term when any number of others may be used is lazy. Perhaps it is an effect of us as young people failing to care about a rich and varied vocabulary.
I am certainly guilty of overusing the word. It's not my fault, It's too perfectly fitting for too many things. "Beautiful" or "pleasant" just doesn't cut it. Besides that, upon seeing something beautiful, deliberating on the proper word to describe it is not typically the response. No, that response is spur of the moment rather than thought upon.
What the widespread use of the word "aesthetic" has done for us is given us a language for openly expressing beauty, and in our fast-paced lives that's exactly what we need. Not everyone is a poet or even a great prose writer, but everyone does experience beauty, and we all want to share it. Once we can do that, we pay more attention to the beauty around us. We appreciate more. Isn't that a better way to live?
Appreciating the frivolous but pleasing may not make us more successful or more accomplished or smarter or more capable, but it does make us more fulfilled human beings. The small things, the misplaced aesthetics fill the empty places in our lives and warm our hearts when we might have otherwise been stuck in the pattern of only what is necessary. Isn't that an aesthetic?
