Beauliful

Prepare yourself! I'm going to blow your mind!

Today I went back to Orchard Road for a little retail therapy. I've been a little stressed out lately, for unknown reasons, and so I thought, like any sensible young woman, that the best way for me to relax is to hang out at the mall. I had blogged earlier that I had gone to Orchard Road and was overwhelmed by the prestige and the array of stores available to Singaporeans (post: This is Singapore?). When I went back to the stores this time I felt a little more confident in myself and was no longer shocked about the famous brand names. I saw so many beautiful clothes, but with big price tags. I ended up buying some jewelry as gifts and biscuits from the UK, both things on sale.

In all of these stores you still notice a similar look. The trend now is to wear pastel colors with spikey accessories. The bottom needs to be slimming while the top can be baggy. There's always a trend that I can't stand and this year it's the tight jeans or jeggings. The tight jean trend is intended to show off your curves and try to make you LOOK slimmer. The truth is that by squeezing your body into pants that are "hugging" every part of your stomach it's causing your intestines to be warped and thus your digestive system will not function naturally. (I won't get into the messy details.) On top of that it makes people who aren't slim feel out of place, either by trying to hide their muffin tops or by not being "in trend" at all. However, this is an outcome of the media. Everywhere in Singapore there are ads about having the softest, supple skin, or there are Groupons about hair treatments to stop hair loss. But I have to admit one of my favorite commercials was about a slimming product so that people can fit between car rear view mirrors in parking lots. Very Singaporean! I'm not saying that one shouldn't try to strive to look their best, but I'm saying that we shouldn't allow ourselves to be abused by the fashion hype.

After all the shopping, I got home, gave myself a foot massage and a facial, did some work on the computer and then ate dinner. One thing about my grandparents' dishware is that it's eclectic. The plates are not a full set and, since we mostly drink kopi (coffee) or teh (tea), we drink everything out of mugs. The mug I used today I noticed had a flower and a word written in cursive on the side. On a quick glance it looks like "Beautiful" but on closer examination it says "beauLiful." That happens a lot in Asian products, no one spell-checks. But that reminded me of something I learned today in a course I'm taking online from Coursea (free university courses online). In the course Know Thy Self, given by Prof. Mitch Green from the University of Virginia, the professor talked about Socrates and the Apology, written by Plato. In the retelling of Socrates' judging by the Athenians, Socrates says this "The un-examined life is not worth living." There are of course people who can be good people and go through life not thinking about themselves and just doing what needs to be done. Good for them! But Socrates is not saying that those who don't observe their life shouldn't be living. What scholars believe is that Socrates is saying that we should examine what we are or else we miss out on the value of our life.

If you noticed by now I wrote "Beauliful" as my title for this post. I did that as a test. Did you notice it? Did it bug you? But now you know and now you may be rethinking your thoughts about tight jeans as I have for several months now. I know it's a trend, but seriously! Why do we have to hurt ourselves to be thought of as beautiful people? If you think a trend would make you beautiful maybe you should examine what you think is "beauliful" so you won't miss out on your true value.

Mind blown.