Not Now, I'm Doing My Make Up

There is nothing I like better than the feeling of delighted revelation I get when I work out the answer to a small and mundane mystery.  The great, unsolved mysteries of life are beyond my ken (and, for the most part, interest) but why a certain table at the cafe was arranged in a way that made it difficult to walk past exercised my mind for a number of pleasurable minutes until the answer presented itself.

Of course the reason such discoveries please me so much is because it allows me to think that I am capable of deductive reasoning without having to do much in the way of actual deductive reasoning.  I take comfort from the fact that I'm sure other people do this as well.  For somebody who is probably intelligent and definitely lazy this is very helpful for my self esteem.  It could be a little concerning that so much of my self esteem consists of delicately lying to my self but I take comfort from the fact that most other people do it as well.  Perhaps "lying" is too strong a phrase (it isn't but I'm going to pretend that it is), I prefer to see it as highlighting the positive and allowing that to gently obscure the negative.

The most obvious example of the above is make up.  Most people wear something that could broadly be defined as make up.  I wrote this entry in my favourite cafe while I watch the owner go about her business.  I doubt if she would consider her short cropped hair, multiple piercings and heavily tattooed torso to be make up (and it takes more courage than I possess to suggest it) but it all helps her present herself the way she wants to be seen.  This, to my mind, is the very definition of make up.  I have another friend who will not leave the house without applying her, more traditional, make up.  She refers to it as "her armour".

This is the other thing that make up does; it protects us.  It prevents others from seeing our flaws and weaknesses and thus provides us with a measure of confidence in our dealings with the world.  Do I wear make up?  In a sense; at work I wear suits because that helps my employers present the sort of image they want for their firm.  Outside of work I don't particularly dress to look good but I would never wear anything I actually thought I looked bad in.  That is make up at least in a negative sense.  Oh and occasionally I paint my nails, something which I can only describe as an affectation.

If you have ever wondered why the make up industry is so vast and reaches into the fashion, exercise and diet industries as well then think on this; there are seven billion people on the planet all of whom at some point will want to look at least slightly differently to the way they appear when they roll out of bed in the morning.  That's before we factor in vanity, insecurity, cultural imperatives and peer pressure.  Frankly, I'm amazed we have any money left to spend on anything else.