I think I have arrived at a point and I'm sure many of my readers and not-so-supportive followers (LOL) concur with me that at some point in my reality I have sort of melted into a strange form of materialism. The love for things. Things that are beautiful, things that are useful, things that are glamorous, things that are utilitarian but always veering towards THAT which makes me look attractive, or make me feel in some way important and grand. It doesn't really matter. Sublime, sensual lingerie, soft stockings, sky-high heels, gorgeous purses, well-tailored clothes, shimmering gadgets - it doesn't matter! Just some strange materialistic inclination has swathed itself around me the past few years.
People attach many evils to giving into materialism. They think that objects, labels can drag you to a whirlpool of emotional disconnect and social cataclysm because you are considering objects far more important than personal relationships, or self-improvement, or finding the meaning of your existence. They think that it stagnates you because you worship what you can acquire and what you can possess. Worldly possessions are categorized right up there among the evils that await people who forget the real essential things in life.
But I seriously believe though that materialism with some form of moderation and manageability is actually GOOD. It is a benchmark too of how far you have come in a world of things tangible to our hands, senses, mind, cognition. How else can you prove that hard work is paying off than with something material in nature? Do you really think that you labor like a farm animal because you wanted to achieve Nirvana of the mind? NO! Before you move onto that higher form of satisfaction and fulfillment, there is a satisfaction first of the BETTER things in life. Things that can be enjoyed by smell, sight, touch, comparison, enviability. If you want to attach it to STATUS so be it, I cannot move you like I can't move the volcanoes but materialism to a certain extent never hurts.
When you have felt enough stress and pressure to unbuckle you off your comfortable pole positions or when you have worked far too hard, I am sure being a little bit materialistic would not hurt. When you have come from the boundaries of sanity and stepped off your comfort zone to achieve a particular position you have wanted to acquire in life, possessing objects is just one part of the process of giving your achievements flesh, blood and sinew - in short giving them a tangible reality!!! And for many of us, when you come from next to nothing early in life and had to scrape by for every little morsel when you were penniless, maybe materialism is the validation of the horizons you have reached, the state of EVERYTHING-ness you have so wanted after years of want with NOT! Hard and fruitful work SHOULD beget great things especially if you produce something beautiful, you are talented enough, intelligent enough and multifaceted enough. If you believe you are worth something then materialism is one aspect where you can validate all that you have achieved in life. It can't be all that bad!
We need affirmation in some guise, we need something to hang onto in a limbo of a world where realities can become cruel, impersonal, deceptive. Acquiring things can be one method for many people to inject some sanity into their restless, tumultuous and often directionless lives. Just like that interesting scene in that fantastic movie, "INCEPTION" we need a spinning top to ascertain that we are still hanging onto worldly existence, that we have not totally succumbed to a maelstrom of uncertainty and discombobulation because of the harshness of our daily realities. For me perhaps my spinning top is materialism. Sorry Leonardo Di Caprio, I should choose something more original, a gyrating Rubik's Cube perhaps?
Whenever I watch Adam Sandler in the movies he stars in, I'm almost inclined to scream, "Can't he just stop doing movies where he plays a single dad with middle-class range income, a son or daughter or two in-tow, beer belly that's getting there, the aura and posture of the quintessential American loser and hackneyed hideous California bum accent of someone who always seems to have a hangover?" Why can't he just be a young, smooth-faced, pale-skinned vampire who chews on the throats of female victims he has seduced? Or am I getting bombarded by these creatures-of-the-night genre series too much that I was able to mention them now? And to go with the train of thought I am currently on, also suspect that these blood-suckers might as well just be creatures-of-the-day because of their highly saturated relevance and exposure to the average pop-corn-eating American crowd?
Must the world run on templates? Cliches?
It doesn't have to be but if you carefully examine OUR lives, the lives we have to lead, because of the occupational (not mine! HAHA), cultural, social dynamics we have to fit into, we are living cliches of lives! I hate to say this but the average foreign person here in Singapore also seems to fit a cliche. Or does this frame of mind just come into the open because it becomes too painfully obvious to me whenever I open my eyes in a foreign country?
I said cliche because most of the people who are alien to this country seem to follow a certain pattern in lifestyle. They'll huddle on their beehives of homes and units, whether ALONE or not and whenever they're bored they go out to SHOP, coffee, or walk around like silly. They'll alcohol once in a while but the costs of partying would be too much to do it on a daily basis! They'll have a girlfriend, an accessory for someone to look PARTNERED haha, sorry I have bucketfuls of respect for the temple of LOVE but when you're looking like you just have to have company to LOOK PARTNERED then I do not have respect for that HAHAHA
Sorry I am not condemning the LIFESTYLE but it feels sad that we all have to fit into a template in order for us to arrive at an image, a STATUS QUO to be maintained.
Life doesn't always have to be cliche though. At least if you can muster the courage to be different, to stand out. to just not live the bumper-sticker of a life. At the same time, I am truly committed and I think there has to be A LOT OF emphasis on trying TO rebel and look cool and be non-conforming WITHOUT and yes the emphasis is on WITHOUT looking like you are trying way too hard to do it. It's paramount for me I believe. I mean if you have to be different but end up like you are doing it beyond your capability then I am sorry it is futile because eventually you will exhaust yourself and you will just go back to being Plain-Jane living the cookie-cutter life! HAHA
It always pays to be SMART too. Not necessarily microchip-intelligent, but to be well-read, well-versed, well-educated simply is a distinction that cuts across all platforms. It's so amazing when you have looks and brains and it really is almost a free pass to COOLness because very few people possess this. Working on the personality will come after you believe you have these two major components within you. SHYNESS is not an option, this destroys all possibilities of being unique. What if you possess all the good qualities mentioned above but cannot overcome this infernal barrier of self-withdrawal from situations of dealing with other people? It's futile if you do not assert yourself in a conversation or any situation.
We walk a fine line these days. Everything seems to be blur into gray areas that many barely recognize as visible and existent and as a consequence lose themselves in the huddle of the masses of cliches walking all around the city. It is a great divide which makes us question. Should we stop being pneumatic robots that fit into the cookie-cutter casts allocated for us in the great social picture or should we risk a life filled with unique possibilities that make us look barely normal and therefore risk the scrutiny and even isolation of the rest of the populace, and even our close peers?
