Keeping Up Appearances Part Three: A Real Thing & Not A Faux

We live in a world full of fakeness. Fake body parts, fake jewelry, and fake wallets, fake this, fake that. Is there anything real that exists in this world? We’ve even got imitation food in the grocery stores. Imitation is another word for fake just in case you didn’t catch that. Everything broadcast on television is fake. Most of the artists who create songs aren’t drawing from personal experience; they are fictitiously creating tight beats and catchy lyrics to grab a hold of the listener. You could say that the world is keeping up an appearance. An appearance that it is the best place or rather the happiest place on Earth, kind of like Disneyland, except one is persistently on a space mountain type ride of this thing called life and we are all high off of cotton candy. There is no peace in this world we live in, hell; we can’t even have peace in our own lives. We’ve got people struggling with alcohol, smoking, drugs, pornography, homosexuality, S&M, pedophilia, bestiality, bondage, caffeine, oral sex, candy, massages, okay maybe I’m getting a little carried away here, but you name it – there is a probably a struggle for it. There are even people who struggle with obesity. If you aren’t struggling, then you haven’t admitted you have an issue. Everyone struggles. Now, I can tolerate the struggles I named but a struggle with food - you gotta know when you put down that Krispy Kreme doughnut or that greasy Popeye’s chicken thigh. We as a country seem to keep up this miraculous appearance in order to portray a false image to the world. To mask our problems we drown ourselves in the television, frivolous magazines and when we are not doing that we are trying to malign others and expose their fakeness. It’s quite interesting when you think about how much time we spend on keeping up appearances in this world – in order to please others. Who or what is so important where one needs to spend x amount of $ on a new nose. Is the image you see in the mirror that debilitating? I could blame the media for its textbook portrayals of beauty – whatever that is. Last time I remember beauty was in the eye of the beholder or am I just an old soul quoting old wives tales and phrases. You tell me. When I begin to look further into this topic, I find that everyone is so worried about everyone else, that they aren’t worried about themselves. That phrase is a la Jack Johnson’s Wasting Time. There is even a craze to see who can wear the best clothes – this is why we strive to purchase that new Armani jacket or Cole Haan shoes or that new dress from Banana Republic or skirt from whatever shop that is overpriced and drawing mula out of that fake alligator skin wallet of yours. The world is just phony – I have to question what is real? I really do – besides emotions, those are real. That’s one true real thing in this world. You know what it means to cry, laugh, smile, love, slander, etc. With these counterfeit appearances comes judgment and envy. Often times, we confuse jealousy with envy. I advise you to look up the difference in a Webster’s. Again, that is everyone so conscious of what other people’s opinions are that they have resorted to fakeness to blend and mix. The world is full of copies, but I wonder where an original is. I am not exempt from this – I have tried to impress people before, and if you say you haven’t, you are lying to yourself. All have tried to blend in and impress. But I continue to ponder this, as I put on my Polo button-down, Nautica jeans and Lugz shoes – all stuff that doesn’t match – gotta be a little different from the brother who’ll be sitting across from me in my Humanities class. It’s better to be a real thing than a faux.