One night, after a particularly strong dinner, I went into my room to get my box of Tic-Tacs. I found it laying around the house a couple weeks ago and it became a habit to pop one in my mouth every few days. When I grabbed the small container from off my bookshelf I realized there were only six mints left. Disappointing I thought. But, as I poured one of the tiny mints into my hand, I realized that Tic-Tacs represented so much about our society that I detest.
They hide parts of us that we want no one to see.
Tic-Tacs are nothing more than an object of deceit. They are designed to hide our breath. The very thing that gives us life. What are we ashamed of?
We're ashamed of our problems. Our bad habits. Our strange desires. Our less desirable characteristics. The very things that would be the most beneficial to share, we hide. Why do the Alcoholics remain Anonymous?
Everyday we put on masks of how we want to be seen. We want respect. We want acceptance from those we look up to and admiration from those we look over. Why is it neccessary for us to hide if all we want is high esteem? Are we not good enough as ourselves? What's the point of being respected for someone we're not?
Each of us are perfect on the outside but none of us are who we are on the inside. We're all cookie cut Ken and Barbie dolls who can only see how wonderful everyone else looks and yet how horrible we are.
Even more disturbing is the fact that we can't even trust our family or our friends to accept our problems. We invest our lives in these people and they mean more to us than anything and yet we can't hope that they will be able to confide in our secrets. Will they not accept us for ourselves? What kind of friends do we think they are?
The worst part is that after the Wintergreen Taste fades away, your mouth tastes as bad as ever. We force temporary solutions to solve our eternal problems. It's like trying to change from the outside in. And, at the end of the day, the mask comes off and the only person we aren't able to fool is ourself.
Slowly, I popped the Tic-Tac in my mouth.
4 comments:
Great.
I've constantly wondered the same thing; where do we draw the line between being true to ourselves and trying to please others? By trying to "improve" ourselves (mints, deodorant, makeup, hairspray, etc.) we add a certain degree of artificiality to our being, and that's not always a good thing.
But I'd still recommend taking a mint or two after a strong dinner. ("I'm being true to myself!" "Yeah, I know! But it stinks!")
interesting. listen to the song unashamed by starfield. it sorta has to do with this topic. really good song to! -karissa
I love it. I don't eat tic tacs but I'm always wondering if my breath smells or some ish like that. I'd never really thought of it as trying to improve myself. xD
Keep at it. Awesome thought. =]
Nah, I disagree.
We have reasons for hiding things.
We're not "ashamed of them".
We just don't want anyone to have to quietly squirm away on the bus when they smell our breath.
And, yeah, we're ashamed of our problems.
If you looked farther, it comes down to survival.
It's not true survival anymore, since man has grown so prosperous.
But to show our problems
our bad habits
our less desirable characteristics...
it shows our weakness.
History has shown (or ceases to show) that species with unfavorable characteristics die, while the perfect prosper.
And to put it, er, scientifically, bad breath, bad habits, and less desirable characteristics leaves us, well... undesirable. All species have two main goals - survive, and... uh... reproduce.
If you're undesirable, you wont find a mate, reproduce, and continue your lineage.
So yeah, most of us need a mint when we have bad breath.
That's why I carry around a tin of Altoids in my backback.
For the ladies, you know?
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