1:35 AM
OGB community
Why is "happily ever after" always portrayed as the guy getting the girl or vice versa? Despite the insistence of that ending in our popular culture, in real life it's not always meant to be. Yet too many are willing to sacrifice too much to make it so or maintain the illusion. As with so many other idealizations, this concept serves only to make people frustrated and unhappy when their story is something else entirely.
The Asian woman is not big-breasted. Many African women are a 'traditionally' built. And most of the world's population is naturally dark-haired. Yet American culture has dictated that to be considered attractive and lovable, one must have large breasts, a slim build and blond hair: Barbie. I won't quote statistics at you -- just look around. Reality begs to differ.
And so the majority of our female population is programmed to believe they are hopeless on the desirability scale and convinced that if they don't turn themselves into this preposterous ideal they will never know love or success. It's grotesque -- and benefits only the advertising media and those who peddle the products one 'must' have to attain this contrived goal. Even Dove's so-called Real Beauty campaign glamorizes the women it celebrates rather than celebrating the Beauty that is a woman who knows her authentic self -- and allows it to shine.
So too the "pursuit of happiness" -- a condition dictated in our very Constitution -- is a set-up for disappointment. What were our Founding Fathers thinking when they coined such a phrase and perpetrated such a concept? Perhaps they recognized that by creating this carrot-on-a-stick enticement they would create a society of rats on a treadmill, perpetually pursuing an unattainable goal, yet performing the tasks of good little workers in the machine of Commerce.
The whole idea of 'happiness' as a goal is fallacy. Happiness is a feeling that arises occasionally resulting from a set of circumstances in the environment. It is random and conditional.
In an evolved society, the more appropriate goal is peace and contentment. And the knowledge that multitudes are not suffering to provide for one's own excess and indulgence.
The problem is, we have been convinced that satisfaction, like love, comes from the outside in, when the fact is exactly the opposite: If we depend on others for love we will always be lacking. And the same is true if we depend upon circumstances for satisfaction.Like love, satisfaction is the inherent state of one who knows her True Nature. And knowing one's True Nature allows one to take pleasure in all the small moments that make up a life, whether or not one has a partner or any other 'necessity' this culture dictates.
The Asian woman is not big-breasted. Many African women are a 'traditionally' built. And most of the world's population is naturally dark-haired. Yet American culture has dictated that to be considered attractive and lovable, one must have large breasts, a slim build and blond hair: Barbie. I won't quote statistics at you -- just look around. Reality begs to differ.
And so the majority of our female population is programmed to believe they are hopeless on the desirability scale and convinced that if they don't turn themselves into this preposterous ideal they will never know love or success. It's grotesque -- and benefits only the advertising media and those who peddle the products one 'must' have to attain this contrived goal. Even Dove's so-called Real Beauty campaign glamorizes the women it celebrates rather than celebrating the Beauty that is a woman who knows her authentic self -- and allows it to shine.
So too the "pursuit of happiness" -- a condition dictated in our very Constitution -- is a set-up for disappointment. What were our Founding Fathers thinking when they coined such a phrase and perpetrated such a concept? Perhaps they recognized that by creating this carrot-on-a-stick enticement they would create a society of rats on a treadmill, perpetually pursuing an unattainable goal, yet performing the tasks of good little workers in the machine of Commerce.
The whole idea of 'happiness' as a goal is fallacy. Happiness is a feeling that arises occasionally resulting from a set of circumstances in the environment. It is random and conditional.
In an evolved society, the more appropriate goal is peace and contentment. And the knowledge that multitudes are not suffering to provide for one's own excess and indulgence.
The problem is, we have been convinced that satisfaction, like love, comes from the outside in, when the fact is exactly the opposite: If we depend on others for love we will always be lacking. And the same is true if we depend upon circumstances for satisfaction.Like love, satisfaction is the inherent state of one who knows her True Nature. And knowing one's True Nature allows one to take pleasure in all the small moments that make up a life, whether or not one has a partner or any other 'necessity' this culture dictates.
Wake up! Embrace the Evolution Revolution, get to know your Self, and understand what "happily ever after" really means.
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