Mirror, mirror on the wall…

It is a fact that the most beautiful people have better opportunities in life and are -needless to say- more successful. During a job interview, they are more likely to be noticed, even if their skills and level of instruction are lower than those of other applicants. There is more : their incomes are higher and we tend to condone their behavior should they make mistakes. Is the packaging now more significant than the contents?

I sure do not want to be sharp-tongued (I am anyway ;)) but politicians do not fit in the picture or so it seems. Except for a few of them, they are rarely attractive, yet we succumb to their charms and vote for them. Is power self-sufficient? Governing and charisma must break free from the tyranny of beauty. I suppose that empathy and gibberish are effective.

Yet we all are aware that beauty is an illusion. You cannot rely on appearances. Folk wisdom says that the clothes don’t make the man. Even if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I bet many would be willing to give up their souls to get eternal beauty. After all, it must be in our genes. According to the French psychologist, Scania de Schonen, 3 days old babies prefer to look at attractive faces.

We were probably never so obsessed with the cult of beauty. Look at our selfie sticks! Complexion is so complex. We want to appeal as a way to be socially accepted, as a way to feel better about ourselves … but is the mirror telling the truth?

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We are strong when we are weak

Our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, our mistakes, our flaws make us strong. Because they reveal our most human features.

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Death: that’s life!

I recently have lost two members of my family and realized that my thoughts on death have matured into a less dramatic expression than it appeared when I was younger. As I pondered, watching their peaceful face and their fixed features, I was reminded of my own corruptible state. And suddenly, nothing really mattered.

Laying my eyes on my deceased relatives, I felt humbled and started to focus on the basics. Life is not about consuming and producing more. Life is not about showing off. Nor is it about grumbling in traffic jams, harming your neighbors, bragging about your brand new smart phone, eating junk or healthy food, worrying pointlessly or watching TV. And it is not even about achieving happiness, being remembered or being survived by relatives.

We all know that the ultimate life measuring rod determines how useful and how human we have been in the end. But as I think about it, usefulness may be a life’s purpose, linked to our humane condition not a death requirement. After all, life purpose is death and life is meaningful because we fear death.

I did not remember he looked so tanned when he was alive. It seems like all is done to erase all traces of the mortal condition. I always have this funny feeling that dead people’s chest will eventually start heaving. As if death was a joke.

When I was an 8 year old girl, my grandfather died and I could not figure out why the radio receiver was turned off, that day. I was scared when I saw him lying on the bed and somehow repelled because he was also lying in my bedroom. I supposed the music on the radio might scare his soul away, which was the reason why the receiver was shut off. In the schoolyard, a kid chuckled: “He passed away because he forgot to breathe.” If that was what death was all about, I was going to be more mindful, I thought for myself.

As a child, I was told that good people are going to heaven. So death was just a passage and life carried on in another shape. I remember I was comfortable with the idea but could not help agonizing over my pre-existent status.

We want control over every area of our life. Even on our own end. Which is basically the reason why we are never ready. I assume that when the moment hits, I will be. Well, there is nothing else I can do but be ready and let go. After all, I have traveled through eternity before. As Woody Allen’s quote goes “Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.”

Driving Miss Norma: what a lesson

A 90 year old woman finds out that she has cancer and that she’ll eventually undergo heavy treatments but Norma chooses to hit the road instead. She decides to live every moment to the fullest. On her American road trip, she tastes the flavors of life. Norma is giving us a powerful life lesson and setting the record straight. The important – that is peace of mind – is not achieved through what society is selling us ; it is achieved through our own ability to enjoy the passage of time. Driving Miss Norma

How to achieve success in… death

  The Darwin Awards are honoring those who improve the species… by accidentally removing themselves from it! Of course, one needs a good fix of derision to catch on this surreal project. All things considered, human is the only species responsible for its own extinction and this is pretty dumb. After all, Einstein said : “Two things are infinite : the universe and human stupidity , and I’m not sure about the universe.”

The Darwin Awards are meant to reward the stupidest, the most absurd deaths. Yes, you read well! Some people are at their peak right at the end of their life. When you read the story of their decease, you cannot help but crack a grin. Some people’s life is a failure, some people’s death is a failure. Let me tell you a few anecdotes.

In South Carolina, Ken Charles Barger’s cell phone suddenly rings. Still in the haze of a dream, the man turns to his bedside table, picks up his… Smith & Wesson gun and shoots himself.

Nah! Weapons are not dangerous. Robert Shovestall was trying to convince his wife. “My guns are not even loaded. Watch this : I’m taking this one, randomly and I am holding it to my head.” No need to say what happened next.

Sometimes, it is just a twist of fate. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a young girl who has had enough of life wants to jump from a bridge. Fifty persons or so are gathered on the bridge and trying to prevent her from following through. There were so many people on the bridge that suddenly the structure collapsed. Nine persons died in this tragedy. Did I tell you that the lady survived…

A bridge too far

TV director Mike Stewart is shooting a documentary on the bridges that were too low in the Dallas area, Texas. As he was sitting on the top of a truck to film a scene, his head violently banged on a low bridge’s pediment…

What an irony! Mr. Jennings, 54 is very sick and really believes he will die in a matter of minutes. So he confesses to his wife that he has cheated her at least three times. Infuriated, his spouse slashes him with scissors. Autopsy revealed that Jennings suffered only from a minor stomach ulcer.

Suspecting her husband to be unfaithful, Vera Czermak is about to commit suicide. As she is jumping out of the window, she eventually crashes on her husband who choked to death!

Salvatore Chirilino is looking for four-leaf clovers on a roadside. Suddenly, he slips on the grass and falls down in a 200 feet deep pit.

Oh and here is the last one. A chicken falls in a wall in Cairo. An 18 year old boy tries to save it but ends up drowning. His sister and two brothers are rushing to his rescue but unfortunately cannot swim. Two neighbors are then jumping in the well but are swallowed up by the water as well! When the rescuers are pulling up the six corpses, they are bringing back the chicken which is alive and well…

All these stories and more at http://www.darwinawards.com/