Being honest may not always pay. Everyone needs to hide their flaws once in a while. It can sometimes be the only way to get accepted and respected. We hide our fears, our insecurities, our emotions, our physical flaws because we fear that people won’t take us seriously and accept us. Being too honest may prevent us from fitting in in the larger crowd. And as we know, there is this level of comfort that one finds in fitting in, and assimilating with others. As anybody else, I sometimes fake to make it. But I always find this feeling of unrest from faking it. The need to let it all out can sometimes boil inside struggling to free itself and come all out. Unfortunately, letting everything out on the table can cause social damage. But I have to say that although fitting in, being accepted and respected by others has its own merits, doing it at the expense of honesty has its own demerits. Simply put, honesty is liberating! As they say, the truth will set you free! Being honest with yourself and with others liberates you from the exhausting efforts of faking and dishonesty. People struggle inside and out to appear as the person they are actually not. It takes a lot of effort to fake it. But when you accept who you are, both inside and out, and are not afraid to show it out to others, amazingly, you get peace of mind because the fight to fake it is over. And sometimes, you may even find that people do actually accept you as you are when you finally accept yourself. But unfortunately, few would take the risk.
One of the things that people try to hide from others is their physical appearance. This particularly refers to women. Without offending my fellow sisters out there, I would like to say few words about make-up and all the fake things that women like to put on to look “pretty” thesedays. Nowadays, it seems that faking has become the new fashion trend. Anything that goes against our natural beauty is well appreciated. Nowadays, you will find fake eyelashes, fake nails, all sorts of powders which they call ‘foundation’ to make your skin get “close to natural color’ as possible, fake hair, you name it. And the thing that I find the most funny is when people talk about putting on make-up that is ‘close to nature’, that gives you this natural look. What is more natural? Nature itself or something that “looks like” nature? Why opt for makeup that “looks natural” if you have nature itself? I think it is a bit contradictory.
For one, it takes a lot of effort to keep the make-up and fake material intact for a whole day. Make up wears out when you cry, sweat, eat, drink, or if by mistake you make a physical gesture that can actually damage all the things that you have put on your body. Even if you do nothing, the makeup that you have put on in the morning will not be there in the evening. If you dye your hair today, the little white hairs start showing up in a matter of weeks. And then the struggle starts again with something that cannot be undone. Make-up and all the fake material we hide ourselves in is simply unsustainable.
Second, and maybe some of my sisters may disagree on this, rarely do I find make-up giving a young look to people. If you look at those videos that show you women before and after makeup, it always seems to me that these women put on at least a few years on their faces. The freshness and blood on their faces suddenly disappears giving them a bloodless, inert face. I am not saying that few highlights here and there is harmful, but I find that the loads and loads of make up that has become the trend now is just too much. The extravagant prices charged by make-up experts in the city is another thing which I fail to understand. Is it really all worth it?
