An age old question perhaps?

Love at first sight. Does it happen? Is it love?
I guess there's two ways of looking at it: Loving someone who you find attractive and finding the person who you love attractive.

There are a lot of attractive people in this world. But I'd say the others that do not fall into this 'attractive' crowd vastly outnumber you (be it by yours or their own judgement). Being attractive is desired by all of us at some level. Some would deem it a minor issue while others would go to great lenghts to make themselves appealing. Question is why?

Perhaps the question is easier to answer than you expect. It is in our nature to be attracted beautiful things. This is pure from the standpoint of physical attraction. But I believe the concept of physical attraction and what defines it has changed over the years. I expect that if you go to the caveman era, what we find attractive now will be quiet possibly irrelevant. Does this mean that human nature has changed? Have we evolved into 'higher' tastes?

It seems that I've gone from love to marriage/partner/provider. Let's see where this goes.

So let's annalyse my earlier statement. What would a female in the caveman era find attractive in a male? Big build? Sharp teech? 'Macho' factor? I would think that female's in those times would look for someone who can provide for her and possibly her offspring. It would come from more of a 'continuation of the species' point of view. What then would the male find attractive in a female? I honestly don't know. Perhaps an indicator of how 'fertile' she is based on whatever physical quality they based it on. Perhaps the ability to take care of the family.

I seem to be walking into attraction based on other qualities now. Boy, if this was a essay for an exam I'd have failed after the first paragraph.

Let's take a look at present times. What would a female find attractive now? Pretty males? Rich males? How often are these not considered first when a female looks at a male? Do they ever go "Hm... he's not that good looking. Doesn't seem to have much money on him either. He's probably a nice guy though."? The males... well... I think males are the reason why the Plastic Surgery industry is doing so well. How often do they go "Hm... she's no [insert name of beautiful person], but she looks like someone I'd like to get to know."?

I'm probably generalising to a large extent. I personally know a lot of people who do not hanker after physical beauty but are attracted to other qualities of a person. This brings about another question to mind.

Would someone who already has a significant other and is attracted to that person for reasons other than physical beauty, ever likely to feel that he or she 'settled for less' upon seeing someone whom, he or she would consider as being physically attractive? I believe that if you truly are in love with your better half (I hope noone got the worst half :p) there would be no such doubts.

What's the point of this whole ramble? Perhaps the answer lies in my next question.

With all the above in mind, what would you consider better: Finding your partner through physical attraction (and then realising his or her other merits and attractive qualities) or Finding your parter through qualities other than physical attraction and then realising that he or she is more attractive than any [insert name of beautiful person] (again) in your eyes?

*applause on another meaningless/pointless rant*