Go Kathryn Go

It's funny; as we've progressed through spring, I've noticed some interesting fashion trends; the dark sun visors, the 'motor cycle helmets' (extreme sun visors), plastic bike mitts, gloves, and long sleeves, and even turtle-necks. What's wrong with this picture that's in your mind right now? If you were looking at a picture of people out and about in the park and couldn't feel the temperature, you would think it was still twenty degrees here (that's fareighnheight by the way)! And it's all for the sake of a pale complexion.

To Americans (while being naturally pale is fine) a tan complexion is generally considered to look (more?) healthy and attractive. I don't really have a preference because I've seen gorgeous pale girls and beautiful tan girls. It seems to me that we only want the qualities that we don't have. This can be a good thing as well as a bad thing; it's a good thing to strive to better ourselves and it's a good thing to feel motivated to accomplish our personal goals; it's also a bad thing because, while we try to overcome our weaknesses, we end up comparing ourselves to others which leads to envy. This is something that we all struggle with. We're always grappling for the thing that is farthest from reach.

Our very human nature is to progress; everyone has this instinct built into their DNA. It is fallen human nature to become distracted from our goals by comparring ourselves to others who have what we want most. We become impatient and discontent with the qualities that we have, and the very people whom we are comparing ourselves to, may be admiring those qualities that we are blind to.

I'm not hammering the Japanese ladies for wanting pale skin, It's just the extreme lengths they go to to achieve a snow white complexion which caught my curiosity and attracted my attention to the time-consuming and costly methods that we all take to get what we want.