It's not all about bigger breasts

We had this quite lengthy and rather heated discussion the other day about whether material possessions can make you happy. I know that's a question probably nearly as old as humankind itself, but it's funny how it never fails to get everyone all worked
up about it.

The thing is, I think the varying opinions don't actually differ from each other in their core as much as they might appear to, as a lot of it is just about how you word it. I tend to find that a lot, that two people say something similar, but wrap it into different words and then fight each other about it, without realising they are both somehow on the same boat. One person is for God, the other for Allah- same thing. One person wants love, one wants power- it all comes down to personal confirmation.

But anyway, to get back to the material possession thing. It acutally started off with a discussion about plastic surgery, which belongs into the same family of discussions. Can plastic surgery make you happier? Personally, I doubt it. But then I might have a bit of a more elaborate definition of happiness. I think there are many levels of happiness- there is short-term happiness, superficial happiness and fake happiness, which feel almost like the real thing, at least for a while. As for those, yeah sure, plastic surgery can do all of that. As for a deep fullfilled happiness that touches your soul and makes you feel whole and at complete peace- I don't think so.

We're not talking about medically necessary operations, by the way, or someone who has a totally crooked nose. We are talking about little visual imperfections, the kind we all have. Say, for example, a girl would like to have bigger breasts. She finds herself unattractive und undesirable with small breasts and thinks that's what ruins her life. Now I believe on a superficial level, bigger breast can make her feel better. But will they really make that hole in the soul disappear, which made her feel unconfident and unattractive in the first place? Will they make the loneliness go away? Will they solve her problems and really and truly fullfill her? I don't think so. Maybe the girl will even attact more men than before, but are they really the kind of men she needs? Men that are now suddenly attracted to her just because she has bigger breasts and wouldn't have been attracted to her otherwise?

It's an endless disussion. Paula argued that most people would never think that far- they would just look into the mirror, go "I don't like my breasts, I'll get them changed" and then look into the mirror again the next day, thinking "I like my breasts now, I am happy". I kind of take this as meaning that people who have a low emotional intelligence and are not aware of nuances of their feelings can be satisfied by a superficial stimulation, whereas people who cannot be fooled as easily would need the real thing to feel truly happy. I guess that's debatable again.

It's the same with material possessions. Take for example my new scooter (yes, I've got a new scooter! And I apologise for not having posted a picture here yet, I promise it's coming up soon). As I've travelled around and lived all over the shop for the last seven years, I have never actually owned a car, so the scooter is the first ever motor vehicle that I own myself. It is of outstanding beauty, if I may say so myself, snazzy and sexy and fast. It's red- the red ones are the fastest ones (didn't you know that?). But I'm getting carried away here. My point was, sure, the scooter makes me happy- on a certain level. It makes me feel ecstatic when I drive it, I often feel like singing when I scoot around and usually have this huge grin on my face. When I turn around the corner and see it standing there waiting for me, so loyal and cute and all mine, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. You can see, I really love my scooter. But essentially, it doesn't make me happy on a deeper level. When I park it in the garage and take the lift upstairs and sit on the balcony smoking a cigarette, I still cry when I feel empty and I still have the same problems I had before. And I'm sure I would still have the same problems even if I also had bigger breasts. It takes a bit more than that.