Vanity and Fashion: Spirituality’s First Step

Yes, the Monks and Ascetics of every major Spiritual Tradition lament Vanity, almost seeing it as the worst Sin. Well, that is because it is the last Sin they have to contend with, having transcended all of the rest of them. Now we should wonder why Vanity should be the last of Sins, unless it was the very last Stepping Stone to get them to where they are, and that is to wishing they were beyond even the thing that had lifted them up as far as they have gotten. Vanity is the Top of the Mountain from which they want to flay away. And so they take to hating their Mountain, forgetting that it is the height of this mountain that lifts them up from the basest depravities. They forget how much of their original Quest involved simply climbing this mountain. And what was the primary impulse that drove them up the steep slopes of this Mountain? Vanity. Yes, they could not have gone from Animal to Spiritual without some Aesthetic Sense of Ethereal Preference, and that is exactly what Vanity is.

What brings me to this subject. Well, I recently seen the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” and then had run out to buy the book (not the screenplay, thank God, but the original and fuller novel by Lauren Weisberger, and so much, then, for the people who think I am anti-Semitic… well, yes I am, but not to the extent of missing out on a book). Almost simultaneously I was shocked with a news report declaring that a new Study has found that now the majority of Americans, the average American now, the ‘mean’ American, what has now become the ‘normal’ American is fat, overweight, obese or well on the way to obese. My! It used to be that ‘normal’ was good thing. But now one has to begin to take an Aristocratic look at ‘normal’ and define it in the old way as ‘common’… and they never meant ‘common’ in a very good way, did they?

Well, what could account for the slippage of America into the category of the physically grotesque? And there we have it – animal complacency to simple appetites. The American Herd now eats by instinct. Just as they have sex by instinct and go to war by instinct. We should have seen this coming when they elected a President who never had better than a C average during his schooling, and probably had much worse at times. Being too stupid for any transcendent or even clever thought, what else has he but animal instinct to rely upon. And his Electorate holds him up as a shining beacon, a Paragon – the Perfect Animal. But I must concede that at least he isn’t fat. Why? Well, nobody is still so far gone that they would vote for a Fat President. Only Israel would do such a thing. Even Fat People themselves know that being Fat is certainly no positive recommendation. For if a person cares nothing for their appearance, we can hardly expect them to care for anything else. And at some level we all know this… even Fat People.

We have much surviving Art Work from the Minoan Civilization, the one that the Barbaric Greeks destroyed. A very High Civilization. They are all portrayed as becomingly slender.

And the French would never dream of being Fat. For them that would be a nightmare.

Now let us look at Fashion, and Models and then the Stars of Pop Music, Theater, Television and the Movies, and for this young generation, the created animations on their Video Games. All thin… or I should say svelte, because it sounds more appealing just as it is more appealing.

But it is not easy to be thin. Perhaps that is the whole point, after all – the effort… the voluntary suffering. It is a rare fashion model, indeed such a model does not exist, that can eat like a pig and say things like “I have a very fast metabolism”. No. They all virtually starve. They reach the point where hunger pangs are a kind of background noise that follows them around throughout life.

Now, Monks and Ascetics hold it as one of their primary accomplishments that they can fast and thus deprive themselves of indulging a primary physical appetite. Oh, and it also helps them to control their sexual libidos. One hardly has the impulse to chase about the village virgins when one hasn’t eaten for several days, or if one lives only on several spoonfuls of gruel a day. Anyway, Fasting, but lets call it what it is, chronic dieting, is one of the points for which the Religious and Ascetic Orders are most proud. Well, then, why should they not admire and admit into their throngs and fraternities all of these others who do the approximately the same thing as themselves. Indeed, the only difference between a Monk and a Model is that the Model dresses better (well, then again, some of the Orders of Nuns have outfits that are quite ‘cute’… who hasn’t had a fantasy there?). Each, both Monk and Model, have the same fear and contempt for the Unimproved Animalistic Human Being.

So, therefore, if you are fat, you should be ashamed of yourself… or perhaps it is futile to say such things, as we can largely expect that if a person has grown fat, then they hardly have much of a capacity for shame. Well, no, that’s unfair… as years ago I remember that I had met this lovely girl of 14 who latched onto my smile, as not something to be taken for granted, and launched into an explanation. Oh, by the way, I was a delivery boy at the time, and Mom and Dad were standing by, and so there was nothing abominable going on. Well, this young lady began showing me Before and After photos. She had been up over 200 pounds when she was just 11. But she had had something of a Satori Experience and had resolved to slim down, and so by 14 she was at her Target Weight and simply lovely. What an admirable little girl. So, yes, I have decided that you Fat People out there have no longer any excuse, not even that you might actually be shameless.