During my walk to work today, I contemplated the idea of detesting one's culture. Or, I tried to say it over and over to myself in French, because j'adore to say "je deteste". It just feels so good, you can really spit it out. My train of thought wallowed in the deeps for a while, and then, as part of my never-ending endeavor to see the good ("for you will surely find it"), I pulled myself up by asking myself what I like.
"Beauty is nice," I thought.
But what is beauty? This is what it means to me:
Beauty is Art. Beauty is considerate and thoughtful. Beauty is deliberate elevation, but also spontanious perspective. Only you can create your own beauty. Someone or something cannot make you beautiful, it has to come naturally from within and without.
I constantly question my fetish-like obsession with fashion, particularly the pieces that are priced "luxury". I see people adorning themselves with luxury clothes and shoes and makeup and having thier bodies surgically altered. All in the name of beauty. Believe me, I know the powerful feeling that comes from sporting luxury items. But it isn't beautiful when you are going out of your way to try and cover up who you really are. That's ugly to me. And sad. It is heartwrenching to hear and horrifying to observe what people willingly do to themselves in order to look like a robotic doll. Am I the only one who thinks it is strange?
I guess it all goes back to "je deteste". I imagine a place where people are calm and peaceful, and they love themselves the way that they are, and are more interested in the beauty of what just is than what a car or bag or injection will do to make them more beautiful. MORE MORE MORE. I think Americans are so trashy, I think of a big pile of garbage as we throw away our past, our future and even our present in the never-ending consumerism and purging. Like the Roman vomitoriums we buy and buy and buy and then we have to get rid of it to make room for more new stuff. Blech. No one wants thier great-grandmother's hand me downs, they want new stuff. New cars new handbags new shoes new clothes new new new and where does all the old stuff go? "Not in my back yard, thank you very much." I'm not saying that I live a life free of these sins, I'm just saying je deteste
2 comments:
Only slightly relevant to your musing is this great quote by Emily Post:
“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”
Wow, I have been trying to articulate that thought for WEEKS now! Thank you, Emily Post.
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