| We're a Nation of People Who Think We Suck |
[Feb. 13th, 2008|01:46 pm] |
I just have to rant, so bear with me.
I work part time in a Big Chain Bookstore, and it's occurred to me on more than one occasion that there is a significant amount of shelf space dedicated to the Self Help Section. I mean, a LOT of space. Something like eight or ten bays. There are books on how to make yourself better, how to like yourself, how to feel better about your childhood, how to repair your damaged self esteem, how to make your body better, thinner, more like a celebrity's, ad nauseum.
If someone studies our society a couple of hundred years from now, we're going to look like an entire nation of fat and unhappy people, who have to be told by experts what to like about ourselves.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret -- I've never bought a self-help book. And here's why: I don't think we need to focus on Self Improvement. I think we need to spend more time on Self Acceptance.
I like myself. I like my family, I like my kids, I like the person I am. I like my body, despite the fact that I haven't worn a size seven since I was 23. I like the foods I eat, the car I drive, the people I hang out with. I don't need to fix damaged relationships, because I don't have any -- and those I had that were damaged, I left by the curb years ago. I don't someone to show me how to have a better sex life, because mine is great, thankyouverymuch. I don't need Dr. Phil encouraging me to give myself more Me Time, because damn it, I already HAVE "me time".
Every time Oprah profiles another new Here's How to Fix Your Fucked-Up Life book on her show, I end up with nine thousand people looking for a copy... and all I can feel for them is pity. I'm sorry you need a stranger to show you how to be happy. But maybe if we spent less time worrying that our life is fucked up, and more time accepting the fact that we might just already Be Fine, then there'd be no need for ten bays of Self-Improvement titles. Maybe we should just like ourselves for who we are, and not despise our lives for what we aren't. Otherwise, we'll spend all our lives trying to achieve something we can't attain, when the thing we need most was here all along, and we were just too dumb to realize it. |
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| Comments: |
Patti you should write a book about this! It'd be a giant middle finger to all of the self-help writers out there who are convincing society that everything suck.
Yeah, but then I'd end up shelved over there in Self Help, with THOSE people, and I'd become part of the very machine that irks my tater :)
Tis a far, far better thing to rant in LJ Land and gloat about my own superiority!
From: (Anonymous)
2008-02-15 08:03 pm (UTC)
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LOL you are SO right! :-)
I was actually writing because I was wondering if you could include my webstore under the shopping links of the About Paganism/Wicca page? I didn't see contact info there. Can you let me know? The info is this:
Bell Book & Candle Supply (www.bellbookandcandlesupply.com) - We sell dream journals, incense, books of shadows, candles, herbs, essential oils, resins, and more. Thanks! Ren
my email: info @ bellbookandcandlesupply . com
From: (Anonymous)
2008-03-01 09:40 am (UTC)
dead on... | (Link)
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I wish I still had all the money I spent on all that nonsense... I'd still be confused but I'd have a few bucks in my pocket!
Tom
brotherwitch2003(at)yahoo.com
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