AESTHETICS - Part IV:

One night, I went to the International House of Pancakes with my friend, the Gnu. While there, I couldnt help but notice this one waitress. She was positively beautiful, so much so that I could help but stare at her from time to time. Everytime she walked back and forth down the aile, that I was in, I would get a good look at her face. A lot of it was "Wow ! is this for real? Someone so good looking." Amen !!! Anyways, time passed, and me and my friend chatted about all kinds of stuff. And... as time passed, every time this waitress walked by, I would take her face in through my eyes. Funny thing happened though, as the time passed. She became less and less good looking to me. What was once stunning, became for me something more mundane. I must have been in IHOP for about an hour and a half. Yeah... it was funny...every time she walked down the aile, she became less and less a looker to me. So, I wonder...why did that happen. And I've since come to realize, that it isnt just with looks that this happens, but also with other things like 'taste'. Often times what seemed to be something incredibly delicious at first, becomes to us just another food item. Its this way with me for a lot of herbal teas. But anyways...moving on... Music is different. More often than not, music is something that we cant feel in the begining, but gets better and better as we listen, and then finally gets more and more average. So too with many an artwork. What I'm wondering is...why does this happen ? If beauty is objective, then shouldnt our receptivity its aesthetic pleasure be a constant. What I mean is, should we allways find the painting or sculpture or song to be allways pleasing to our aesthetic senses. I mean the aesthetic pleasure that we get shouldnt start off strong and then get weaker and weaker over time.[I can think of one possible solution to examine.] Think for a momemt about the color of objects in the World. On a sunny day, the color of the sky is blue (- assuming no clouds). That is an objective fact. However as time passes, even if the color of the sky remains blue, my perception of its blue-ness does not change. In my mind it doesnt become less blue and more red. So then if beauty is objective, why then does my perception of what the 'beautiful' is change over time ???