|
VANITY
Obsession with image.
Constantly polishing
the veneer.
Certainty that you are
all that matters.
Obstinately
‘clutching’ a self-grandiosity myth.
Traveling gracefully
despite the heavy baggage.
Inordinate concern
with what people think of you and your stuff.
A common trap that
ensnares the ego with the lure of attention.
Self-deception that
packaging is more important than substance.
Incessantly devising
attractive presentations of personal accoutrements.
Ageless irony in
‘harmonious’, human relations which are often sustained by
respect for ‘masks’.
- Perhaps all is vanity
‘save’ what we accrue by loving.
- Perhaps obsession with
appearance undermines commitments to altruism.
- Perhaps the confidence
we have in proper etiquette leaves us vulnerable to
duplicity.
- Perhaps, to paraphrase
a poet, too many of us know the price of everything and the
value of nothing.
- Perhaps after the light
fades out on life’s accomplishments and trophies only a
loving heart remains illuminated.
- Perhaps when we
constantly yield to habits of accommodation we are betraying
our youthful spontaneity and honesty.
- Perhaps youthful
preening is a necessary prelude to attracting and coupling;
perhaps maturity is more concerned with grooming character.
- Perhaps self-indulgent
imagination that touts whimsy while ignoring or even
disdaining values is the wonton child of modern
exhibitionism and hedonism.
- Perhaps the facades,
the veneers of our houses, cars and bodies, can successfully
garner acceptance even admiration; perhaps the ‘constructed
edifices’ can easily obscure the turmoil within.
- Perhaps society’s
tenacious conformity sustains a comfortable vanity that
embraces what is common and expedient; perhaps the mass
psyche’s entrancement with movie and television images
epitomizes this.
ESSAY ON VANITY by EDWIN
O’SHEA
RETURN HOME
©2007-2008 Edwin O'Shea and definingyourworld.com. All or
part of only one topic, including all definitions and essay,
may be used without written permission. Please see full
copyright notice on home page.
|
