Enlightening Thought #25

Have you heard the story of the paper bag princess? If you haven't, here it is in all of its glory. (Actually, this is a re-telling from my memory, and possibly not completely accurate.) The paper bag has also been replaced with an IKEA bag.



Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a galaxy far, far away. She was destined to marry a very, very, very good-looking prince, who had never read Enlightening Thought #1 and thus did not understand that there was much more to life than just being really, really, ridiculously good-looking. So one day, while they were sitting around doing nothing, because that's what people in fairy tales do, a very angry dragon (we aren't sure why he was angry, but he was) swooped into the kingdom and destroyed everything, including the clothes they were wearing. The princess had no choice but to wear an IKEA bag. The prince was devastated because all of his material possessions had been burned to ashes. The dragon locked him up in the dungeon, where he wept tears of sorrow and pity and felt sorry for himself. The princess, on the other hand, came up with some amazing tricks and outwitted the dragon by having him fly around the world a couple of times and do other outrageous things. When he finally finished all of her tasks, he dropped down into an exhausted heap and fell into a very deep sleep (and possibly into the same realm that Sleeping Beauty dwells in). The princess, exhausted and weary and covered with dragon breath, went to rescue her prince in distress. The prince, still bleary-eyed and upset about his losses, took one look at the princess and turned up his nose, announcing that he shall not be rescued until she looked more princess-y and better suited his tastes. At this point, the princess realized what a jerk the prince was, and ditched his sorry ass. She lived happily ever after with her best friend, Jennifer.

The end.

The moral of the story? (There are two!)

1. If he's a materialistic jerk, don't waste your time.
2. Don't use paper or plastic bags - get reusable ones from IKEA!

Paper bags are actually worse than plastic bags when it comes to the environment. They generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags, and take 84 times more energy to recycle than a plastic bag. The best thing to do would be to avoid both plastic and paper bags, and opt for a reusable bag!

Do your part to get rid of the superficial idiots in the world, and help save the environment too!

Enlightening Thought #1

The insight that kicked it off.



While sitting on a bus to Boston, close to midnight and after a hectic day, I started to doze off. A movie with bright flashes of lime green, neon pink, and zebra was playing on the tiny screen above my head. I paid little attention, only semi-interested in the activities taking place in Zoolander. And then one line in the script hit me with surprising clarity.

"There's more to life than just being really, really, ridiculously good looking."

That's it.

And the best part is, it's pretty much self-explanatory.