Pondering on Perfection

Perfection
Comes encased
In an illusion
Hiding the decays
And the facets
Of imperfection.

Like a mirror
With two faces
The good glitters
And the bad
Lurks and reflects
In dark recesses.

A banal farce
Of human nature
The affectations
Used to bolster
The image
For the greater.

Celebrating 'Us'

We had a small celebration today. It is not a special day. Nobody's birthday, nobody's anniversary. We just celebrated. In short, you could say we celebrated 'being us'.

Children love themselves with a pure, unadulterated love, wholly unmarred by fake modesty or the fear of offending their peers. They live only for themselves.

Teenagers, with their innocent self-importance, put themselves before others, but are often criticized as having an attitude problem.

As we go through life, our 'I love myself' motto gradually diminishes. We start to put the needs of others before us, often at the expense of ourselves. As the pressure of not being able to cater to all and sundry grows, the feeling of inadequateness creeps in. We begin to look upon ourselves as hopeless beings. Our true feelings are suppressed while we work even harder to 'do our best' for others. The perilious journey into the world of doormats thus begins. Our identities, once treasured, slip away without our knowledge. Our self-assertion, self-confidence and self-love flounders with uncertainty.

At times, we need to remind ourselves that we do not need to please everybody. No one has the right to call us self-indulgent if we pamper ourselves once in a while. We are individuals, and we function as our own person. Nobody can treat us as doormats unless we give them the license to do so.

And so, with a cake that says 'Here's to us, cheers', and lots of jests and happy laughter, we celebrated 'us'.