Boob Jobs and The End Of The World
Tragedies come in many forms, even heart-shaped butts. The deadly risks of cosmetic surgery appeared in headlines again last week after the death of Solange Magnano, a former Miss Argentina, on November 29th. The model suffered a pulmonary emb
olism after a gluteoplasty to get a firmer butt. You may recall a similar story about the mother of Kanye West a couple of years ago. She also died from complications resulting from plastic surgery. I’d be understating the matter to call Magnano’s death needless. Did I mention she was a mom? Well, she was also a fool.
Fools by definition are people who lack good judgment. This group would include the majority of our elected officials, cult members, and generally everyone ever at some point in their life. You’ve probably had one of those “What was I thinking?” moments. We all lack good judgment from time to time, but most of us don’t lose our lives over it. I just have a hard time thinking of many reasons that could be more idiotic to die for than a tight butt.
Someone who drinks until they’re hammered and drives around town is also a fool, the only difference is that they might take the lives of others. There’s a lot of power in recklessness. I’m not talking about calculating criminals but rather self-serving seekers trying to control the uncontrollable. This recklessness just confirms my theory that we all hide private longings, those secret somethings that make special people less than special when you see them behind the curtain. Just ask Tiger Woods. Like Henry David Thoreau said, most of us lead lives of quiet desperation.
That quiet desperation leads folks to do some pretty stupid things. We’re aware that no one will understand because the reality is that we are often wrong in our hidden desires and we know it. We keep selfish versions of the life we want to ourselves. In the process we pile up regrets until one day deciding that we’ve suffered enough and that we deserve whatever it is that self-appointed martyrs claim as their deathright. Lost along the way are all the blessings we’re too blind to see and all the people who suffer from our mistakes.
At some point during childhood, Twisted Sister told me that people want what they can’t have. Turns out that’s one of the truest and most lasting lessons I’ve learned. We want it all. We want. Tell the ugly duckling to understand a beauty queen unhappy with her posterior. Tell a barren wife to understand a mother who gets trashed with kids in the backseat. Try to understand anytime someone else throws away the very life you’ve long dreamed of.
Two decades later, that same sister just called to wish me a happy birthday. She asked how it felt to turn another year older. I asked her if guys could use eye cream for wrinkles without being laughed at. Her fiance laughed at me. Such is the cost of vanity. Sometimes it’s higher. Read more »
Life. Culture. Education.
Life as Pop Culture Professor Clay Morgan
In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo he can take the blue pill and go on believing whatever he wants to believe. Or he can take the red pill to stay in Wonderland and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
This is a red pill type site that provides information in an entertaining way. It’s about clear thinking and good writing. It’s about finding meaning amidst the absurd. It’s about humor and truth.
I’m a writer / speaker who teaches history and political courses at a couple of local colleges. Where is local, you say? Well, that would be Wonderland of course.
On topics ranging from pop culture to the meaning of life, my brain’s always poppin’. Take the red pill and unplug.
